Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Byrne's position may be a little strong. Senator Cullinane may not be trying to close down rural Ireland altogether.

I do not support the amendment. The draft local authority budget must be prepared setting out the amounts necessary for the functional programmes of the authority, including an amount to be provided as the general municipal allocation. A consultative process commencing with the input of the corporate policy group, as set out in the Local Government Act 2001, remains central to the development of the local authority budget. The chief executive must subsequently prepare a draft budgetary plan for each municipal district. The members of each municipal district shall adopt the draft budgetary plan and the chief executive shall take account of any adopted budgetary plans in preparing the draft local authority budget. Each draft budgetary plan will set out the general municipal allocation being made available to that municipal district. It is important to ensure that these allocations are made with due regard to the principles of fairness and equity. This is being done in the legislation, which sets out the principles to be applied by the chief executive in making resources available to the district members for consideration in a draft budgetary plan. It provides that the chief executive have regard to the resource needs of the municipal districts and the broader needs of the local authority. Resources are allocated accordingly. It is common sense that each local authority member will fight hard for his or her municipal areas. For these reasons, the amendment is not necessary.