Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I am responding to this adjournment motion on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

General purpose grants from the local government fund are structured to bring about equalisation, over time so that each authority will have sufficient resources, either from central grants or from its local income base, to provide an acceptable level of day-to-day services to its customers. For the purposes of allocations, a range of factors is taken into account, including each local authority's expenditure on, and income from, each service; the overall amount of funding available for distribution; and the need to provide each local authority with a reasonable allocation towards achieving an acceptable level of services for its customers.

Donegal County Council's general purpose grant allocation for 2009 is €41,475,164. General purpose grants to Donegal County Council have increased by 218% since 1997, which the House will agree is a significant increase. All local authorities have been informed that they should prepare their estimates for 2009 on the basis of the general purpose grants already notified to them. These allocations take account of projected income from the €200 charge on non-principal private residences.

It is for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process, having regard to locally identified needs. I am satisfied that the level of funding provided through general purpose grants makes a significant contribution towards enabling all local authorities to provide a reasonable level of services to the public.

In budget 2009, the Minister for Finance announced the Government's intention to introduce a charge of €200 on all non-principal private residences with the exception of properties as yet unsold. Liability for the charge will fall on the owners of the properties concerned and a revenue yield of €40 million is estimated for next year.

When Senator Doherty raised the issue of the charge on non-principal private residences in this House recently, my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Finneran, made the point that the revenue base of local authorities is relatively narrow. This is the reason, together with the wider economic difficulties Ireland faces, the Government decided to introduce a €200 annual charge on all non-principal private residences effective from next year.

Legislation to give effect to the charge is being prepared in the Minister's Department at present. This will spell out the detailed manner in which the charge will operate, including the deployment of the revenue accruing from it.

While all local authorities have been made aware of overall Government policy on payroll control, under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, the staffing requirement in each local authority area is a matter for the relevant manager, who is required to make such staffing and organisational arrangements as may be necessary for the purposes of carrying out the functions of the local authorities for which he or she is responsible.