Written answers

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Covid-19 Pandemic Supports

Photo of Seán CanneySeán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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288. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the Covid-19 support scheme for local authorities will be put in place in view of the fact that local authority funding has been decimated due to Covid-19 with the waiving of rates, the absence of planning fees and other charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16671/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I intend to continue supporting measures taken by my Department to assist local authorities with the financial difficulties they are experiencing since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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.

The 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 Government. This process is underway in my Department in the context of the forthcoming July stimulus. The previously announced waiver forms part of this consideration, with a view to a single communication with local authorities and ratepayers in the near future.

It is recognised that some additional costs are being incurred by local authorities in relation to Covid-19 and that other fees and charges normally gathered are not being collected. 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 local government sector. In order to support the sector generally, I will ensure my Department continues to keep local authority income, expenditure and cash flow generally under review and will continue to work with all local authorities, both collectively and individually, on issues arising.

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