Written answers

Wednesday, 27 January 2021

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Local Authority Funding

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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333. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the specific funding streams available to local authorities to apply for; the amount that has been given by county; the amount awarded under each scheme in each of the years 2018 to 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4059/21]

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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334. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the specific resources that are allocated to local authorities in order to enable them to apply for additional Government funding streams; the analytical mechanism used by him to ensure that there is a fair distribution of resources and funding; if he will provide this Deputy with the evidence and or briefing supplied to him to support same; if he plans to design a manual of funding streams and to streamline funding opportunities for local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4076/21]

Photo of Peter BurkePeter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 333 and 334 together.

My Department has a wide and diverse business agenda, covering a broad range of functions including local authority housing, voluntary housing, homeless services, estate regeneration, energy efficiency retrofitting, housing grants, rural water schemes, urban renewal/regeneration, fire services, and natural and built heritage, each of which includes a number of funding schemes.

My Department engages regularly and constructively with the local government sector and with individual local authorities on their financial situations. Information on these individual programmes and schemes is available to local authorities through this regular direct engagement, as well as indirectly via the website, publications and announcements.

Information on funding provided by my Department to local authorities in 2019 and earlier years is contained in Chapter 2 of the Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2019: Central Funding of Local Authorities published by the Comptroller and Auditor General in September 2020, which is available at the following link:

www.audit.gov.ie/en/find-report/publications/report%20on%20the%20accounts%20of%20the%20public%20services/report%20on%20the%20accounts%20of%20the%20public%20services%202019.html.

The Budget 2021 Expenditure Report, published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform details my Department's Abridged Estimates (Part III), and gives information on the estimated current and capital allocations for 2021 in respect of each relevant programme/scheme, on the basis of the financial provision made for my Department following decisions made in the context of Budget 2021. The Expenditure Report can be found at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/32999-expenditure-report/. The Report does not include additional funding for housing purposes provided by certain local authorities from Local Property Tax (LPT) receipts and amounting to some €91.5 million in 2021.

On the broader question of resources available to local authorities to enable them to apply for funding from my Department, under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.

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