Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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511. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide in tabular form the provisional local property tax allocation to each local authority for 2015; if he will further provide in tabular form the allocations of general purpose grants from the local Government fund to each local authority, including town and borough councils, for 2014; the net increase/decrease in funding allocated to each local authority for 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44175/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Local Property Tax (LPT) was introduced to provide an alternative, stable and sustainable funding base for the local authority sector, providing greater levels of connection between local revenue raising and associated expenditure decisions. Given that local authorities vary significantly from one another in terms of size, population, public service demands, infrastructure and income sources, the Government has decided that no local authority will receive less allocation from LPT in 2015 than they received from the Local Government Fund in 2014 , prior to any decision taken locally to reduce LPT rates. 80% of LPT will be retained locally to fund vital public services in 2015. The remaining 20% will be re-distributed to provide top-up funding to certain local authority areas that have lower property tax bases due to the variance in property values across the State.

Certain local authorities, with stronger property bases, will receive additional income in 2015 from LPT compared to their 2014 General Purpose Grant. The Government has decided that these local authorities will use this surplus funding in two ways, with a portion available for their own discretionary purposes and the remainder, if any, to fund some services in the Housing and Roads areas for which they currently receive Central Government funding. The portion that will be retained for discretionary purposes by these authorities will be an amount equal to 20% of the total expected LPT income in their respective areas (before any decision to vary rates) or, in the case where that surplus will be less than 20%, the full amount. It will be a matter for the individual local authorities to decide how to spend that discretionary funding.

Effective from 1 July 2014, local authorities may vary the rate of LPT in their administrative area for the following year by up to 15% of the basic rate of the tax. The power to vary LPT rates has been given to local authorities to further increase their autonomy. Elected members are already responsible for finalising the annual budget of the local authority – it is a reserved function for them – and the power to vary LPT rates will enable them to directly influence the level of LPT income they have to meet their expenditure requirements in the future.

The decision to vary must be taken by resolution of the Council and must be notified to the Revenue Commissioners by 30 September each year in order to apply for the following year. For 2015, 14 local authorities availed of the opportunity to reduce the basic rate of LPT by the levels set out in the table below. The other 17 local authorities did not vary the LPT rate for 2015.

In the event that a local authority decides to increase LPT rates, they will retain 100% of the additional LPT collected. Where a local authority decides to reduce LPT rates, the full cost of that reduction will be reflected in a reduced LPT allocation to that local authority.

I have advised local authorities of their individual provisional LPT allocations for 2015.

The amount allocated to local authorities from the Local Government Fund for general purpose grants in 2014 is €282 m; this figure recognises the removal of water related costs from local authorities to Irish Water in 2014. The table below details the general purpose grant allocations from the Local Government Fund to local authorities in 2014 (the allocations to County Councils are “county at large” allocations in respect of the County Council and any Town Councils within the county).