Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I read in the Irish Examineran article from 1985 about Cork County Council being under exceptional financial pressure with its budget and needing £2.3 million to stay afloat. I read the Irish Examinertoday, 37 years later, and it features a similar headline. The council now needs €24 million to stay afloat. It is amazing that this issue occurs on a continuous basis. How do we fund our local authorities and ensure they are providing appropriate services for the people? I was opposed to the new arrangement in Cork when the city boundaries were extended, taking the rate base away from the county. We are seeing the knock-on effect of that decision now. According to the Irish Examiner, we have a local authority in a county the size of Cork writing to three senior Ministers asking them to intervene in order that it can have sustainable funding going forward.

It is appropriate at this time to have a wide debate about local authority funding and how and where it is provided. We also need to debate the role of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General in regard to local authorities and if it should have a say on whether they are spending money appropriately. Over the past 40 years, we have put a plaster over a gushing wound. We need a root-and-branch review of what happens and how it happens to make sure we do not have another headline of the same nature in 37 years' time.