Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

147. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the position regarding funding that has been collected by town councils for the sale of public housing under the tenant purchase scheme; if this money can remain with the new municipal authority (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8567/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In February 2009, my Department set out details of the financial requirements for local authorities relating to their overall management of capital and current accounts. These requirements flow directly from the requirement for Government finances as a whole to be managed in accordance with the Stability and Growth Pact established under the Maastricht Treaty, and the associated limitation on budget deficits. The local government sector must not impact negatively on the General Government Balance (GGB) in any one year. In order to stay within the overall GGB limit, it is necessary for local authorities to maintain both their current and capital accounts broadly in balance. The only restriction on local authorities is that, in aggregate, capital income equals capital expenditure in the year. Balance is only required at an overall level and this allows considerable scope for authorities to draw on their existing capital reserves as an element of their overall investment programme. The precise manner in which capital and current accounts are managed in order to achieve the overall balance necessary is a matter for individual local authorities.

The Government’s Action Programme for Effective Local Government sets out Government policy decisions in relation to a range of local government reform measures including a more effective, coherent and comprehensive system of sub-county municipal governance, encompassing both urban and rural areas, to strengthen local government within counties and address weaknesses and anomalies in the current system. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 provides the legislative basis for the structural reforms set out in the Action Programme. The Act provides that the local authority for a county will become the successor authority, for all purposes, of each town council in the county. Section 13 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides that any moneys accruing to a housing authority from the sale of dwellings to tenants, etc., shall be placed in a separate account and, with the Minister’s approval, may be used for the provision of housing or for the refurbishment or maintenance of existing housing, or any other related purposes. Responsibility for this account and other assets of town councils will rest with the successor authority in each case. It is a matter for every local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources within the GGB limits as set out.