Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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141. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to reintroduce the block grant to provide extra funding to local authorities which originally had a town council. [8663/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I assume that the Question refers to general purpose grants from the Local Government Fund. Up to 2014, general purpose grants (GPG) were a contribution, from my Department, towards meeting the cost to local authorities of providing a reasonable level of services to their customers. The general purpose grant allocations to local authorities in 2014 were in respect of the local authority area as a whole and took into account any former borough or town councils within the area. The 2014 GPG allocations recognised the move of water related costs from local authorities to Irish Water in 2014. 2015 saw the introduction of Local Property Tax (LPT) allocations being paid to local authorities through the Local Government Fund.

Given that local authorities vary significantly in terms of size, population, public service demands, infrastructure and income sources, the Government decided that no local authority would receive less income from LPT in 2015 and 2016 than they received from their GPG allocation in 2014. Accordingly, the LPT allocations for 2015 and 2016 take account of the historical GPG funding provided to any former borough or town councils within the local authority area.