Galway local authority funding
Deputy Kerrane argued Galway County Council is underfunded compared with neighbouring counties. The Minister said local authorities were supported through Covid compensation and that a sustainable revenue base, including local property tax, remained necessary.
Yesterday, researchers from NUI Galway launched the 2022 edition of the local authority finances website. It shows that Galway County Council has a budget of under €144 million for this year, which is equivalent of €802 per person in Galway. If you look at the counties surrounding Galway, you can see that Mayo has a budget of the equivalent of €1,256 per person, Clare has a budget of €1,167 and Tipperary has a budget of more than €1,200. Galway is bigger than all of these counties and has a population that is far greater. The most recent census shows that 258,000 people live in the county. The policy makes no sense. Galway is the second largest county in Ireland, yet it is at the bottom of the table year on year when it comes to central government funding. Despite my raising this matter numerous times, nobody can tell me why. It is towns like Ballinasloe and villages from Ahascragh to Ballymoe and the people who are living in County Galway who are losing out. They do not have the budget to do what they need to do in respect of housing, water and roads. This issue needs to be addressed. This situation does not make any sense and it is affecting staff numbers. Can the Minister look at this?
Comment on this
It has been generally acknowledged by local authority executives and members throughout the country that the Government looked after them well over the course of Covid-19. I include Galway City Council and Galway County Council in that. This was the right thing to do. There was full compensation for rates waivers. Even though local authorities do not always collect 100% of rates, they were refunded 100%. All of this underlines the need to have a sustainable revenue source, including the local property tax, which the Deputy and her colleagues oppose. Taking that away would further erode the revenue base local authorities have.
The Deputy raised a specific issue relating to Galway. I will ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who is in charge of the allocation of funding across local authorities, to come back to her directly.