Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter and I welcome the Minister of State. I am sorry the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is not present but I am conscious that he is meeting colleagues from Sligo County Council and its chief executive officer as I speak. Nevertheless, I would like to make it clear that it is important that central government does not take an attitude to smaller counties without the robust funding mechanisms of larger counties, which run a surplus, and mistreat them as a result.

Since November last year, central government through the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has prescribed cuts, which have affected the people of Sligo, in particular to library and tax office services and 50 additional lay offs. This is unacceptable. More than 180 people have lost their jobs with the council over the past three years. To treat them in this way is to do little more to the people of Sligo than what many of us believe Brussels and Frankfurt have done to the people of Ireland. Sligo County Council and other small local authorities cannot be treated like independent republics somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean dependent of the goodwill and charity of other countries. The citizens of County Sligo and Sligo town are the same as those in Fingal County Council, which happens to have the good luck to have Dublin Airport contributing to its commercial rates base. That local authority has €100 million on deposit while, at the same time, the lack of a robust funding mechanism for councils such as Sligo County Council has led to significant debt which I will break down.

It is often reported in the media that the debt is in the region of €100 million. This includes €30 million spent on land acquisitions. The Department at the time insisted that the national spatial strategy be developed. Every party bought into the strategy, which was subject to public consultation throughout the country and which was overseen by the best spatial planners the Department could procure from Denmark. The strategy stated that Sligo should prepare for a population of 100,000 by 2020. However ridiculous or misguided that policy turned out to be, the Department told the council to think bigger, be more ambitious, prepare public private partnerships and not to be subservient to the developers of the future in the context of having sufficient land for social housing, community facilities and so on.

Another €30 million of debt relates to mortgages, which have been lent to people. As is normal, there is collateral associated with them. A further €15 million relates to the contribution locally to the €120 million spent on upgrading water and waste treatment plants in Sligo. The remaining €25 million is the current deficit ,which relates to servicing the debts and covering the cost of running the water services infrastructure, which increased from €5 million to €10 million per annum between 2008 and 2013. Sligo County Council is a small local authority dependent on central government support but Exchequer funding reduced during this period from €18 million to €9 million. It was, therefore, halved.

In this scenario, we are being pushed out into the Atlantic Ocean and we are being told we can sing for the money because the Department is treating the local authority in isolation and blaming it for implementing Government and Department policy. I acknowledge there were issues relating to the collection of outstanding rates, arrears and so on but these have been addressed by the new chief executive officer and the council. Local authorities such as Sligo County Council, which do not have a Dublin Airport or hundreds of millions of euro on deposit, cannot be discriminated against for failing to have sufficient resources. Central government must come up with them. We expect that central government will provide additional resources for Sligo because the people of the county deserve no less.

They are as entitled to their libraries, tax office and community services as anybody in Dublin South or Fingal, which have the larger rates bases. I appeal to the Minister and his Oireachtas colleagues from the area. There are three Senators from Government parties and two TDs. They will be held exclusively responsible for failure in this regard, as will the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, by me and my colleagues if this is not done.