John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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271. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a submission from Kilkenny County Council on its financial circumstances due to the Covid-19 crisis has been received; the range of financial supports that will be made available to the council to assist in stabilising its financial position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13851/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I am unaware of any specific request from Kilkenny County Council to my Department in relation to its financial circumstances due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My Department is engaging directly with the County and City Management Agency in respect of the local government sector as a whole, on commercial rates and impacts on other income.

Regarding the range of financial supports that will be made available to the sector, I intend to continue supporting measures taken by the Department to assist local authorities with the financial difficulties they are experiencing since the outbreak of Covid-19.

It is recognised that some additional costs are being incurred by local authorities in relation to Covid-19. Local authorities have been advised to capture all related costs in their financial systems to aid future financial analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on the Sector.

At the outset and to minimise cash flow challenges, my Department arranged for the early payment of Local Property Tax (LPT) to all local authorities. As a short term measure, €136m was made available to local authorities as cash flow support in early April, in order to ensure that vital services that local authorities deliver can be maintained. This support was comprised of the early payment of the LPT allocation ordinarily paid from the Local Government Fund in May and July. Further to these measures, my Department recently arranged for the early payment of 50% of each local authority’s individual Payroll and PSPR allocation, amounting to €54.8m. This interim payment would ordinarily be paid later in July.

On 2 May 2020, a waiver of commercial rates was announced 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 to be met by the Exchequer. The approved Programme for Government – Our Shared Future, commits to setting out how commercial rates will be treated for the remainder of 2020, as a priority action for this new Government.

In order to support the local government sector generally, I will ensure that my Department will continue to keep local authority income, expenditure and cash flow under review and will continue to work with all local authorities, both collectively and individually, on issues arising.