Results 2,241-2,260 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Chairman-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: My point is there is no question that is more fundamental than if people can use public money to try to present spin as news and if the State is buying the news. If the Government presents its press releases, so be it, but if we have come to a point where it can pay for the design to look the same as on every other page in a newspaper, we have entered a most dangerous sphere. Newspapers...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: That is no problem. The Chairman is quite right to pose the questions he has posed. I am not surprised by what I have heard. I spent 17 years on the council until 2016 and am familiar with the pressures that we were under every single year in terms of self-generation of funds through parking income, rates and other levies so I am not surprised whatsoever. I was quite au faitwith those...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I want to touch on this because the Taoiseach touched on it also and set out his personal views on the matter. I appreciate that the Department of Finance is considering this in the first instance but it will surely liaise with Mr. McCarthy and all the chief benefactors of the fund. Let us look at the scenarios without any predetermined outcome. I note that when writing a piece on this...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: That is an interesting one because many local authorities have availed of that and have applied reductions year on year. It led to the unusual scenario of many county managers making public appeals over local airwaves not to do so, given the impact on services. That is quite unusual because as Mr. McCarthy knows county managers are quite reticent to make any public announcement, good, bad...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Therefore it is on the table.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I refer to that review of the distribution of the money because obviously there is the 80% retention of money. I mentioned the Taoiseach because he talked favourably about councillors being able to fully retain what they raise locally in improving local democracy. When it comes to the equalisation of the fund, the redistribution of the 20% from the central pot based on old scenarios that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I return to my opening question. The Department should be advising the Minister how much additional revenue it feels needs to be raised from LPT. Even though the Department of Finance is carrying out this review, Mr. McCarthy knows intricately how large these councils' deficits are and how much additional resources he feels could be obtained from LPT. As future growth patterns will...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I will move on to roads. In many people's minds the correlation between the payment of motor tax and the condition of the roads remains a bugbear, in terms of the number of people paying motor tax and even indeed in terms of the development levies they pay on their houses and the condition of roads around the country, which in many rural areas are absolutely in bits. In his opening...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Let us go back again. In terms of the amount of money derived from motor tax that is going to reduce based on what the Comptroller and Auditor General has said, will Mr. Doyle tell me how that shortfall is going to be met?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Chairman, I am getting really frustrated by this. We had this situation in respect of the commercial rates a couple of weeks ago as well. People in the Departments are surely painting pictures for Ministers. If the Comptroller and Auditor General is pointing out that income from this source is going to drop by a quarter of a billion over the coming years, someone somewhere is surely...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: My opening remark was just in terms of people's correlation in their minds. I am well aware of the terms of the distribution of funds, collation of funds and so forth. My primary concern is that if a quarter of a billion goes off the books, how is the Department seeking to replace it? When is the issue going to be addressed? Will it be in this budgetary cycle? It has been pointed out...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Another one the Department is going to get hit with------

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I ask for a small bit of leniency.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: That is fine, Chairman. If the Department increases tax on lower emissions vehicles, it will quite rightly be criticised by environmental groups that are trying to support that industry. That means the money has to be raised elsewhere. The officials are going to have to say to the Minister that we had better raise it from local property tax, LPT, or commercial businesses. Everyone has to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I only asked about the money. I asked about where the quarter of a billion is going to be found.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Taking it in the round is the point I am trying to make. The Chairman is trying to collate everyone in the room, which is why I am running out of time because there are so many people to ask questions. If everyone is working in silos and we are just putting the money into the Central Fund and no one is really addressing how it is coming in, or if there are decreases in income, then we have...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I appreciate that. I do not want revisit the revaluation process today.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I only asked one question. Is it sustainable?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Is it sustainable for local government to continue whereby more than one third of income comes from the commercial rates of small and medium-sized businesses in this country? The proportion is growing. Is that sustainable?