Results 24,961-24,980 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: In addition to HAP and RAS, there are also the long leases to which Mr. Doyle referred, which are incredibly bad value for money. Properties are being leased for 25 years, with a rent review every four years and then returned to the owner at the end of the 25-year period once they have been refurbished. When HAP was introduced I made the point on numerous occasions in the Dáil that...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: There are some landlords who would be receiving very large amounts of taxpayer's subsidies, over and above the amount that would normally be required to be advertised. They are the ones I am talking about and there would be a cohort of that they are not required to advertise.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: They are in a different category. Is there transparency of that? I assume the Department has spreadsheets.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Can we have that?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Then we can drill down into it. Other than that we are talking in a vacuum. It is going to be quite important for us to drill down into that.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I understand the Department then makes a return to the Revenue. I think the two systems talk to each other to ensure compliance with tax rules.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. Mr. Doyle might give us a note on that as well.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I move to the Local Government Fund. We have signed the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The local property tax, LPT, was introduced, but it is centrally controlled. That became even more evident with the review of the baselines. Population certainly does not matter. We were told that was going to be one of the things that was going to be a factor in the review of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: It is an announcement of money but much of it is virtual money. The authorities are allowed use the same money differently.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I have gone through the budget in some considerable detail and I do not see where it is new money.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I do not need a big list. I understand this.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I must stop Ms Quinn there. Okay, there was a review, but population does not matter. I have done the numbers on this and it does not matter. Consider a county like Fingal that has outstripped everywhere else in population growth terms. There are whole new areas in it that did not exist in 2000, for example, and there is no compensation to that local authority for those new areas, despite...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I must stop Ms Quinn there. Yes, that is the case and that simplifies it a little, but what occurs now is local authorities will have a baseline and once they go above it, they then have to self-fund things like roads. Motor tax is collected, but local authorities must use what is collected via the LPT on road repairs.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: It is daft. This is made to be complicated for that reason. If the vast majority of people had an overview of this, there would be a bloody riot.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: Yes, I have been through it.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I must stop Ms Quinn again. I looked at the total spend of all local authorities, bringing everything in. I saw some local authorities with a smaller population with a bigger total income receiving more in local property tax. It just does not make sense and it is unsustainable for local authorities that have growing populations. They cannot provide services. It is self-evident that if we...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: At this point I am seriously considering making a complaint to the European Commission on the issue of subsidiarity in the context of us signing up to the European Charter of Local Self-Government. I have had it with the way people are being treated with respect to the LPT. I have some quick queries on Irish Water and the controls. We were all told when it was established that it was...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: It is the one in Celbridge, the big sewerage project.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: I will come back to this topic in the second round.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023)

Catherine Murphy: They long-leased rather than built, which is the very point I have been making. I want to go back to the local government issue because it drives me nuts. A total of 35% of the population increase between 2016 and 2022 happened in five local authority areas. They would have been the substantial ones: Dublin City Council and Fingal, South Dublin, Kildare and Meath county councils. This...