Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I am back here for the fifth year in a row, with the same request for funding from the Department to cover the loss of rates revenue at Lough Ree power station. As the Minister of State knows, Lough Ree power station in Lanesborough - similarly to Shannonbridge in County Offaly - was due to close in 2027. However, both plants closed in 2020, seven years earlier than expected. The rates base of Lough Ree power station for Longford County Council is €1.25 million. A recommendation from the just transition commissioner stated:

It would be extremely unfair in circumstances over which these local authorities had no responsibility and for a decision which was not expected until 2027 that they should be burdened with this sudden loss. I recommend that an urgent engagement takes place with the Chief Executives of the councils concerned with the funding Departments so that a suitable emergency arrangement can be agreed to alleviate the rate losses over the period 2021 to 2026.

No agreement has been put in place for that whole period. Every year there is uncertainty in the local authority regarding this funding. We are now at the time when budgets and figures are being put together for 2025 and the council has no confirmation of guarantees that the funding will be in place. Every year since 2020 I have come here to try highlight this issue and to make sure the council can get the funding put in place so that it can put proper budgets together for the year ahead. This will allow it to ensure that it is in a position to service whatever capital projects need to be done. More importantly, there are a significant number of projects in the various communities throughout the county. When I was a member of Longford County Council, we were the first local authority, ahead of the 2019 local elections, to take a decision to increase the LPT charge by 15%.It was the first county to do so. Why did we do it? It was because we wanted to get projects into our county. Funding streams were available. The council had to pay a 10% contribution towards these grants. We felt that by doing so we could ring-fence that money solely for those projects. That is what we did at the time and we have got significant multiples of millions of euro in grants from the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, CLÁR, the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, ORIS, and all the various town and village schemes that have been put in place, especially by Department of Rural and Community Development. Every part of our county - every town, village and community - has benefited from it, but we cannot plan ahead to be able to service the loans we have taken out to get the moneys for those projects without some certainty. I do not understand why, every year, we have to come begging to get this money and are sometimes told in late October that the money is in place while budgets are finalised in October, as we all know, in every local authority. I want certainty for 2025 to 2026 at a minimum and then we would look at a system where perhaps there would be a sliding reduction of those rates. They would be tapered off over a number of years. As a small county, €1.2 million is actually 15% of Longford's rate base. We cannot take a hit like that. If we are to provide proper services, whether library or fire services, we have to service loans with those significant grants. I want guarantees that funding will be in place for the next few years.