I raise an issue in respect of the local government funding baseline review commenced last year. My understanding is this review has reported but the report has not been published. Will the Taoiseach confirm if this report has been received and say when it will be published? Areas have been frozen in time for the last 20 years in respect of population. No account whatsoever has been taken of increased population over the last 20 years in terms of the funding of local authorities. It is urgent that this report is published and that we the make a change to that. Essentially, parts of the country are trying to function with their hands tied behind their backs.

I am aware of the difficulties some local authorities are facing because they are tied to the last baseline which was set in 2014 and when we introduced the local property tax, LPT. The Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, has led a review of funding allocations to local authorities which is almost complete. The heavy and substantial work has been done but it is linked into the work we need to do on the local property tax itself. The two are not independent of each other. When we arrive at finalisation of that piece, we can then finalise the allocation of funding to each local authority that would make up their baseline, which can be added to through the LPT.