Written answers
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Department of Environment, Community and Local Government
Local Government Fund
Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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517. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount of funding his Department has awarded to counties Monaghan and Cavan since 2011; and if he will provide a breakdown of what the funding was granted for. [7139/15]
Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I assume that the Question refers to General Purpose Grants from the Local Government Fund. Through the Local Government Fund, my Department provides a funding contribution towards meeting the cost to local authorities of providing a reasonable level of services to their customers. Up to 2014 this funding mechanism took the form of the General Purpose Grant (GPG).
As a result of the establishment of Irish Water, the local government funding model changed considerably in 2014. Prior to 1 January 2014, funding for operational water expenditure in the main came from the Local Government Fund through GPG allocations. The funding to be provided to local authorities for the provision of water services is now governed by Service Level Agreements between Irish Water and individual authorities and, therefore, the authorities are no longer in receipt of funding for these water services costs directly from the Local Government Fund. Accordingly GPG allocations to Local Authorities fell between 2013 and 2014.
The table below gives the General Purpose Grant Allocations to Monaghan and Cavan for the years 2011 to 2014.
| Cavan | € |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 15,988,123.55 |
| 2012 | 14,450,581.38 |
| 2013 | 14,745,113.00 |
| Monaghan | € |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 15,167,469.87 |
| 2012 | 13,541,630.26 |
| 2013 | 13,983,408.00 |
| 2014 | 10,247,882 |
Local Property Tax (LPT) was introduced in 2013 to provide an alternative, stable and sustainable funding base for local authorities, 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 decided that no local authority will receive less allocation from LPT in 2015 than they received from General Purpose Grants in 2014. 80% of LPT will be retained locally and 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.
Based on its shortfall position when expected 2015 LPT receipts are compared to GPG Allocations 2014, Cavan County Council and Monaghan County Council will be in receipt of equalisation funding in 2015. The table below shows the 2015 LPT allocations for Cavan and Monaghan.
| County | 2015 LPT Retained Locally | Equalisation Funding | Total Provisional LPT Funding to be Provided in 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cavan County Council | 3,618,987 | 4,839,428 | 8,458,415 |
| Monaghan County Council | 3,135,040 | 7,112,842 | 10,247,882 |
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