Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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174. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline the borrowing capacity of all local authorities combined for the years 2020 to 2025, in tabular form. [31083/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Under section 106 of the Local Government Act 2001, local authority borrowing must be agreed by the elected members of a local authority (by passing a resolution); and must be sanctioned by the appropriate Minister.

In addition, as part of Ireland’s obligations under the Maastricht Treaty regarding general government deficit and debt and the requirements of the revised Economic Governance Framework, the total value of non-mortgage borrowing undertaken annually by the local authority sector is limited by a requirement that the sector remain neutral in terms of the General Government Balance (GGB). This means that in any year the local authority sector can borrow the equivalent value of the principal that will be paid on non-mortgage loans in that year.

The table below outlines the borrowing envelope available for non-mortgage loans for the local authority sector for the years 2020 to 2025.

John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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175. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of local authorities that employ an international relations officer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31128/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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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/she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

However, granular data, in terms of the number of international relations officers employed in each local authority, is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from each local authority.