143 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on concerns regarding the level of funding being provided by his Department to local authorities to ensure that the register of electors is updated to the best possible degree of accuracy. [12334/02]

No recent representations have been made to my Department regarding the funding of work by any local authority to update the register of electors. Some €593 million has been allocated to local authorities from the local government fund in general purpose grants for 2002. This represents an increase of 10% over the 2001 baseline allocation and is some 75% higher than the corresponding allocation in 1997. I am confident this level of allocation, together with income from local sources, is sufficient to meet the ongoing and special costs of local authority services in the present year. It is the responsibility of each individual local authority to ensure that its register of electors is accurately updated.