Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 288: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the way in which his Department, in determining the funding for local authorities, provides balance between urban authorities and rural authorities in funding; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that urban authorities afford such a luxury as parks departments whereas the rural authorities are struggling for basic necessities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16544/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government provides specific grants, including capital grants, to local authorities for a wide range of programmes. The allocation of such funding is carried out on the basis of national and local priorities relating to the programme concerned and having regard to the overall amount of funding available for each programme.

No specific funds are available to the Department to provide grants for the operation of parks departments in local authorities. Local authorities fund such expenditure from a variety of sources including commercial rates, fees and charges for services and general purpose grants from the local government fund. Such general purpose grants are determined on the basis of a number of factors including the overall resources in the fund, the application of the needs and resources model, which takes account of the appropriate cost to each individual local authority of providing a reasonable level of services, and the income available to each authority from local sources.

The funding provided to local authorities through the grants has increased substantially in recent years. Grant allocations from this source in 2005 were, on average, 8.6% higher than the corresponding allocation for 2004 and approximately 130% higher than the level of such grants in 1997. The financial position of local authorities has been greatly strengthened in recent years because of increases in central funding and the strengthening of local income bases. It is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in its annual budget having regard to locally identified need and the resources available to it.