Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. The matter I raise in this debate is the need for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to address the financial crisis that is being experienced in my home county by Donegal County Council, which has led to the announcement by union representatives, which has been confirmed, that 238 employees of the council are to be made redundant in the forthcoming months.

In conjunction with this, I request the Minister to outline an issue I raised in the Seanad a few weeks ago, namely, the levy that was introduced in this year's budget on all non-principal places of residence. Has the €200 to be collected from properties subject to that levy already been included in the allocation made to the council in this year's local government fund?

The reason I ask these questions is the Minister may not be aware of the decision taken by Donegal County Council and confirmed to the members on Monday this week. Some 71 fixed-term employees of the council have been notified that their contracts will not be renewed as of 31 December. The council has indicated to another 49 employees that their contracts will not be renewed at the end of March and 118 further employees on fixed-term contracts have been informed that it is unlikely their contracts will be renewed when they expire. That is a total of 238 employees who will potentially not be working with the council over the next couple of months.

This will have serious effects. There is a direct effect on the individuals concerned who are losing their council jobs. We are deeply concerned by this. The redundancies also have an overall effect in Donegal. Last night I had the opportunity to talk about the unemployment problems in the county and about the fact that we are losing employment at a rate of 100 jobs per week. That is far in excess of what is happening in other counties.

Those job losses will also have a serious effect on the services provided by Donegal County Council. I am not sure if the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is aware of the implications of this. The loss of 238 staff from the local authority will have major implications of which a Green Party Minister should be aware. For example, my information is that the jobs of a number of the litter wardens who operate in Donegal County Council will no longer exist. There will be nobody doing that type of work. All five sections of the council will be seriously affected. Some sections will be limited to skeleton staff and, no doubt, there will be serious implications for the service that can be provided.

With regard to the €200 levy on holiday homes, rental accommodation and non-principal places of residence, I raised this issue a number of weeks ago and was told by the Minister with direct responsibility for it that the likelihood was that there would be an equalisation process and it would be unfair for the local authority to retain the funds. I disagree with that. It is wrong and it robs Donegal County Council of much needed funding.

Let us look, for example, at the three categories to which the levy would apply, holiday homes, rental properties and vacant properties. In the case of holiday homes, Donegal County Council has the highest number of holiday homes — nearly a quarter of all holiday homes — in the State. With regard to rental properties, we have the sixth largest number of rental properties in the State and the fourth largest number of vacant houses. The total number of premises subject to the levy in Donegal would bring in a total sum of approximately €4.6 million annually.

The notion of putting this sum into a central fund and distributing it evenly or via some equality measure to all other councils is wrong because it does not take on board the fact that Donegal County Council does not have the rates base other counties have, particularly those with cities or large urban areas, or those located on the east coast that have seen the benefits of the Celtic tiger over the past decade. It also does not take into consideration the financial situation in Donegal County Council.

As bad as the equalisation process would be, the indication from the county manager to the council meeting last Monday was that he understands from the Department that the levy that was to be collected and distributed to the council is already included in the local government fund. If that is the case, this will further deepen the financial crisis within Donegal County Council. I seek clarification on both of those issues.