Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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773. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount he has allocated in additional funds to carry out increased cleaning and litter collection in parks and other public places; if he has allocated additional funds to local authorities to provide public toilets in parks and other public places; if so, the amount in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19848/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I have no function in the matter raised in the question. My Department does not allocate specific funding for cleaning and litter collection purposes, nor for the provision of public toilets, as these are operational matters for each individual local authority.

The democratically elected Councillors are responsible for running the local authority in conjunction with the Chief Executive and his/her team. Under Section 149 of the Local Government Act 2001, the Chief Executive of a local authority is responsible for the executive functions of the local authority, and for that purpose to manage and control generally, the administration and business of the authority, subject to law.

Local authorities receive income from a variety of sources, including grants from Central Government, Local Property Tax (LPT), commercial rates and other locally-raised charges. Each local authority is mandated to determine its own spending priorities, while having regard to locally identified needs and available resources.