John Carty (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 204: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the impact on local council funding for County Mayo from the recent proposals to change the basis on which Government funding for local councils were implemented; and the impact allocating funds on a population basis would have had in 2005, 2006 and 2007 on the allocations for Mayo County Council rather than on the existing allocation system. [7199/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I assume that the Question refers to general purpose grants from the Local Government Fund. I allocated some €948m in general purpose grants to local authorities for 2007. This represents an increase of 8% over the record amount provided in 2006 and is almost three times the amount provided in 1997. General purpose grants are my Department's contribution towards meeting the cost to local authorities of providing an acceptable level of day to day services to their customers.

Allocating this funding on a per capita basis in 2005, 2006 and 2007 would have substantially reduced the overall amount made available to the local authorities in County Mayo. In the case of Mayo County Council, the reduction would have been some €13.3m in 2005, €14.48m in 2006 and €16.16m in 2007, or an overall reduction of nearly €44 million on the total allocation of €105.75 million over the period.

In allocating general purpose grants, I have regard to each local authority's expenditure on, and income from, each service, the overall amount of funding available for these grants and the need to provide each local authority with a baseline allocation that will ensure its financial stability. Local authorities cost and income bases vary significantly from one another and calculating an appropriate distribution of these grants is complex. Any system designed to align funding solely or mainly on a per capita basis would ignore important differences between local authority cost and income bases.

The very significant increase in funding in real terms to local authorities in recent years is an indication of this Government's firm commitment to the sector. This funding, together with the continued rates buoyancy from the greatly strengthened commercial base supported by the Government's successful economic policies, will enable local authorities to continue to improve the range and quality of the services they provide to their local and business communities.