Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

675. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the per capita funding of local authorities ratio by county. [2441/19]

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The funding system that applies to local authorities is a complex one, as authorities derive their income from a variety of local sources including commercial rates, charges for goods and services and funding from Central Government.

Central Government funding of local authorities similarly presents a complex picture, with transfers, both current and capital, coming from a wide range of Departments and Offices for a variety of purposes. Some streams of funding are delivered directly from funding departments to local authorities, while others are routed through departmental agencies.

Most of the funding sourced from Central Government and provided to local authorities must be used for specified services. These can be grouped into 5 broad programme categories: recreational, education, environment, housing and transport.

In 2017, total transfers of funding from all central government sources to local authorities exceeded €2.6 billion. Additional detail on Central Government funding of local authorities is provided in the Comptroller and Auditor General's Annual Report, which is available at the following link:

.

In addition to Local Property Tax allocations and Departmental Grants and Subsidies, local authorities derive income from local sources including commercial rates, and goods and services such as housing rents, environmental and other charges. It is a matter for each local authority as to how it can maximise income sources and manage its own spending, in the context of the annual budgetary process.

My Department works closely with local authorities to ensure the local government sector can meet existing and emerging challenges; however all funding issues have to be considered within the parameters of the national fiscal and budgetary situation and competing priorities.

Across all schemes and funding sources, my Department provided just over €2.6bn to local authorities in 2018. The table below sets out the funding that was allocated to each local authority by my Department in 2018, the population of each local authority and the consequential per capita distribution.

It is important to note that local authorities vary significantly from one another in terms of size, population, population distribution, public service demands, infrastructure and other income sources; all are factors which should be taken into account when comparing levels of funding in different local authority areas. It is not, therefore, possible to compare absolute levels of funding from my Department to each local authority as to do so does not reflect the significant differences that exist between them. Account would also need to be taken of funding provided by other Government Departments and agencies.

* This includes funding provided to Limerick City and County Council in its role as the shared service provider for the Housing Assistance Payment scheme.