Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be as brief as possible. I want to touch on a few issues. The first is around the overall funding available to local government funding. I very much welcome the fact local government funding this year is approaching the €5 billion, but we should never lose sight of the fact we are only getting back to where we were back in 2008. Funding for local government dipped to its lowest level in 2015, when it dipped below €4 billion. Last year, the allocation of approximately €4.7 billion for local government was comparable to 2010. We are really only standing still. If one takes inflation into the mix, we are worse off now than we were in 2008. I would argue strongly that the whole issue of local government funding needs to be kept on the agenda and councils need to be adequately funded.

It is quite worrying that the moneys that have gone over to Irish Water have not been replaced in the local government funding model. I accept that Irish Water is now carrying out most of the responsibilities local authorities would have been carrying out in the water end of it. Nonetheless, that is a net cut in funding to local authorities.

The funding mix available to local authorities is about 10% local property tax. Then there is one third from goods and rental income, one third from State grant and one third from commercial rates. The dependence on commercial rates, and now the revaluation which was referred to by Senator Gallagher, is creating an atmosphere where local authorities need to collect that money and of course that is creating difficulties for many businesses. Aside from that, we should consider providing additional powers to local authorities. Many State services provided by Departments and quangos could instead be driven through local authorities. At least there would be democratic oversight. A root and branch review of some of those services should be carried out in the Custom House. The doubling up of quangos managing services that are beyond the reach of democratic scrutiny should be ended. Local councillors could provide oversight and act on behalf of the people by questioning the delivery of services.

The Custom House and the Department have power over the way that local authorities spend their money. Senator Humphreys, with whom I agree, touched on this matter. Local authorities lack autonomy over how they spend their money. Strict criteria apply to how the block grant from the Department is spent. I will cite an example from yesterday. The director of housing services for Kildare County Council appeared before officials of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The director was told that the local authority could no longer purchase second hand homes where individuals were living and the landlords wanted to sell. Instead, the council must buy new homes. This is despite the fact that no new homes are being built in the region. It makes no sense. Reality needs to be brought to bear. Issues like these are being raised by local authority members throughout the country. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking. Local authorities are on the ground and should be listened to by the Department and not lectured as is happening currently. Councillors should be given additional powers.

I wish to touch on the provision of funding for local councillors. I attended the meeting of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government when the Minister of State appeared before it on Thursday, 28 November. He indicated that this matter would be addressed and stated his hope that the Moorhead report would be published within ten days or two weeks. Where is the report? We are one week on. When will he receive it? Will he act on its findings? I welcomed his statement last week that he would publish it upon its receipt. He should fight on behalf of local councillors to ensure that this report is not given over to the Public Service Pay Commission. Were that to happen, we could be looking at a result months, or maybe even years, from now. We need a result now.

The Minister of State also mentioned last week that he would backdate to the local elections any additional payment to councillors. Will he confirm whether that will be the case? I welcome his work, which is not made easy by dealing with the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance, but this issue must be addressed as it is long overdue. Other Senators, including Senator Horkan, raised the heavy workload of local authority members. They are the practitioners of democracy and are at the point of contact closest to the citizen. A suggestion I have made numerous times is that councillors should deal with local issues and local representations and Deputies should deal with legislative scrutiny and holding major State organisations to account, including banks. Instead of there being competition between Deputies and councillors at local level, Deputies would have less of a role there. Senators would play a comparable role. When there is competition, the Deputy does not want to see the councillor well resourced. That is unfortunate and wrong, as the councillor should be well resourced, given the significant volume of work that he or she must do.

I hope that the Moorhead report is published as soon as possible. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to return to the House following its publication to discuss its findings? It is a matter for the Leader to schedule, but I would like the Minister of State to do so as soon as possible.