John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about the issue of housing maintenance, particularly in my own county of Louth. This follows on from issues on which I have been working and from the meeting that all Louth Oireachtas Members had yesterday with the council executive. There is, essentially, no housing maintenance budget in County Louth. The three engineers are each down to approximately their last €1,000. I spoke this morning to the director of services who was able to tell me that we are spending circa€344 per unit and we have 4,500 units in Louth County Council. By comparison, the average spend in England and Wales is approximately £650 to £700.

The problem is that the three engineers are now spending more time watching their budgets than being able to go and carry out works. Some people have been on to me who cannot get windows replaced. The council is prioritising severe issues such as heating and that type of thing. The reason I bring it up today is that it feeds into my point. Louth County Council is one of the few councils not to increase the property tax. It has stayed the same for the past six years, since I was first elected to the council. Other local authorities of similar sizes have increased them by 10% or 15%. The only income that Louth County Council has this year is from parking charges in Dundalk and Drogheda. There needs to be a time when the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage looks at some local authorities which, on certain issues, could be considered to be underperforming, for want of a better term. Louth County Council genuinely does not have the money. It has practically run out of funding and is counting its pennies when it comes to housing maintenance. I think in situations such as that, the Department should be able to step in and bail out a local authority, for want of a better word, and give it a bit of extra funding as we approach year end. I do not think it is acceptable that engineers have to count pennies towards the end of the year because they have run out of funding.