Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I conducted a survey of five local authorities over the summer and received interesting responses. I sought information on what the top ten companies in each local authority area were paying in commercial rates. In the Cork County Council area, the top ten companies were paying €27 million in commercial rates, while in Dublin the figure was €67 million. A lot of money is being paid to local authorities by way of commercial rates. In the Galway City Council area, the total was €4 million, in the Limerick City and County Council area, the total was €12 million.

My Commencement matter is concerned with whether we are getting value for money from our local authorities. There is a huge variation in the average rates payment. In Cork county the average is €11,647, in Cork city it is €10,894, in Dublin it is €15,223, in Galway it is €9,929 and in Limerick it is over €11,000. Has the Department, in the last ten or 15 years, carried out an assessment of the amount of money it is costing to run individual local authorities, the number of staff employed, the services being provided and the value for money being obtained? If not, is it not time to conduct such a review to determine how we can make our local authorities more efficient and improve the services provided by them? This is particularly important now, given the huge demands in terms of providing housing. There is a need to ensure that once local authority houses become vacant, they are turned around in a timely manner. That was a source of many complaints in the recent past. We must also ensure that the maintenance of local authority housing is efficient and cost effective. Other areas of responsibility include roads, drainage and many other services and it is about time we had a review to see how we can help our local authorities. It is important that support is provided to them by central government. That is the context in which I have raised this Commencement matter and I look forward to the Minister of State's response.