Results 13,201-13,220 of 14,706 for speaker:Phil Hogan

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: It is all on page 16 on the Revised Estimates briefing paper circulated to the committee. Under subhead D3, income and expenditure of the Local Government Fund, income from local property tax comes to €550 million, gross motor tax receipts amount to €1.16 billion, and interest from local government moneys invested in the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA,...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Yes.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Yes, the Deputy is correct but it is there in front of her.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Well, one has to tell them the truth. Other outgoings include €50 million on miscellaneous schemes and the Irish Water subvention of €486 million. This comes to a grand total of €1.77 billion in expenditure. We supplement that with excess of income over expenditure of €68 million. If one wants to explain it to people, one cannot explain it clearer than that.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: The Government wanted an 80% retention of the local property tax to allow local authorities more discretion in their budgets from 1 January 2014. However, we were not in a position to do that because of EU-IMF matters. We expect to be able to do it from 1 January 2015, instead. Those councillors elected on 23 May 2014 will be able to vary their budgets plus or minus 15% from the national...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: That is what they were telling us. There were surpluses of €26 million. They were not charging for the true cost of water supply. We put 40% of the capital into the Dublin region water supply. After one takes out the water supply funding which is now going to Irish Water and the local property tax, in 2014 there is an 11% increase in the moneys going to local authorities.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: If the Deputy does not want to read the Revised Estimates, then it is not my problem.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: The local authority heading shows €1.7 billion in income with €1.77 billion in outgoings. There is an 11% increase in local authority funding and we are in a bailout. That is a tremendous boost to local government funding.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Did Kildare County Council receive a cut in its funding in 2014?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Would the Deputy not talk to-----

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: The Deputy should ask the county council's director of water services.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Or an environmentalist.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: Deputy Corcoran Kennedy asked a number of questions regarding local government. The commercial rate will be struck by the county or city authority, not by the municipal district. However, the municipal district members will be members of the plenary session when that happens, whatever municipal district they are from. If they want to have certain enterprise initiatives at local authority...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: However, the Deputy did not acknowledge that we were at last, making an investment there. Some 50% of the population of Roscommon will have an enhanced water supply. With regard to people on boil water notices, I am prepared to tell the CER that this and such issues must be taken into account before charging these people. I would see it as very unfair for the regulator not to take these...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: The EPA has to license all wastewater treatment plants. Perhaps the Deputy's experience in Roscommon is that the local authority goes out and investigates issues itself, but that should not be the case. The EPA should be doing it as part of the licensing conditions.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: I did not answer questions on service level agreements asked by Deputies Murphy and Cowen. I will put up a generic service level agreement on the website today and each local authority must explicitly account for it in its accounts with Irish Water.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: We only have a generic service level agreement since the Bill was passed before Christmas so we could not do anything before now. It will be put on the website to show what will be involved. Local authorities must then account for it explicitly in their accounts afterwards. The Deputy will be able to get the full picture. The director of services, finance or water should be able to explain it.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: This is why the rural water programme is with local authorities. Irish Water will be more concerned with major urban areas and major investment opportunities which will provide jobs-----

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: I have retained group water schemes and rural water schemes in local authorities so we can target all of the issues Deputy Mulherin raised with regard to CLÁR areas. Does Deputy Flanagan know about CLÁR areas given that he is from Roscommon?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Phil Hogan: They are a legacy issue I inherited from Deputy Ó Cuív where funding was cut in 2010. We must now find money to finish schemes in very remote rural areas which otherwise could not be finished. We are examining it, as Deputy Mulherin knows, to see what we can do to supplement community groups and ensure they have the basic human right of adequate water.