Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1267. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he plans to take to address the funding shortfall in funding for Galway County Council and Galway City Council as identified in the report of the expert group to examine the amalgamation of Galway city and county councils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4647/20]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Government approved the merger of Galway City Council and Galway County Council on 18 June 2018. However, the elements of the Local Government Bill 2018 that provided for this merger were not ultimately passed by the Oireachtas.

At the current time, all local authorities are experiencing financial challenges. In order to support the local government sector generally, my Department continues to keep local authority income, expenditure and cash flow generally under review and will continue to work with all local authorities on both collective and individual issues that arise. Furthermore, I committed an additional, once off, allocation of €1m to Galway County Council towards the end of 2019. While that allocation has not yet been made, I intend to fulfil the commitment in the near future. Galway County Council has submitted initial proposals in respect of the additional funding and how it might be utilised and these are under consideration in my Department

On 2 May 2020 Government announced that a waiver of commercial rates will apply to all businesses that have been forced to close due to public health requirements, from 27 March 2020, for a three-month period. The costs involved (and the corresponding revenue loss for local authorities), estimated to be €260m, will be met by the Exchequer.