Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. It is an important one. Last Friday, we had the Kildare County Council AGM and I was very glad to be there to see my friend and colleague, Councillor Daragh Fitzpatrick, take the position as first citizen. I congratulate him and wish him well in the year ahead.

The previous day, Kildare County Council launched its 2022 annual report. I can honestly attest, as a former member of Kildare County Council and a former mayor, to how diligently and how hard both the staff and the elected members work to deliver for all the communities and towns within Kildare. The annual report gave a very important overview of the council's programme of work delivered in 2022 and many significant and important projects and milestones were advanced by Kildare County Council. There were grants to many different businesses to support different areas of business development such as start-up expansion and export marketing and funding for the Athy food, drink and skills innovation hub, which will act as a home for our county-wide food cluster and education hub and manufacturing space. That is hugely important and we look forward to it. On the housing front, Kildare County Council reached its target of 372 new homes, in addition to 261 new homes through a social leasing programme and significantly increased expenditure on housing grants programmes. Some 75% of the work has been completed on the Athy distributor road and of course there is the maintenance of roads and footpaths and the provision of litter and amenity services. I could go on.

It is very clear that Kildare County Council, under the leadership of our new CEO, Sonya Kavanagh, her team and our councillor colleagues are delivering for their communities but they are doing this from a position of relative financial weakness when compared with all other local authorities. Population, as we know, is a key demand driver for all local authority services, from planning to housing, from libraries to fire services, from recreation to roads and across all services.Over the past 30 years, Kildare's population has doubled and increased by just over twice the national rate. However, when it comes to funding, Kildare County Council is not getting its fair share. I thank Ms Fiona Millane, acting head of finance in Kildare County Council, for sharing figures with me. When we compare statistics, Kildare is fifth out of 31 local authorities in terms of population. It is seventh of 31 for local property tax, LPT, generation. It is tenth out of 31 for overall budget but it is 31st out of 31 for expenditure per capita. In terms of the overall budget, that is shocking.

In 2022, the average spend per head of population nationally was €1,078, while in Kildare, it was €715. Kildare residents pay more than €21 million in LPT, the seventh highest figure in the country. The scale of the underfunding is such that in order for Kildare to have the same per capitaexpenditure levels as the local authority that is next in line, at 30th of the 31 local authorities, there would need to be an uplift of more than €5.4 million in funding. To have the same expenditure levels as the local authorities in 28th and 29th places would require an uplift of more than €26 million.

Kildare is a blossoming county which the Minister of State knows well. Our communities are bursting at the seams. Recent data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, show that we have one of the highest rates of population increases in the country, at 11.4%. We are seeing towns such as Newbridge, Kildare, Kilcullen, Monasterevin, Rathangan and many others growing and attracting huge inward population growth. We are welcoming a lot of people from the Dublin area who have been priced out but we need to get the support we deserve.