I thank the Chair for selecting this item for debate. At this time of the year there is the usual hassle between the Department of the Environment and local authorities on the amount of the rate support grant for 1992. Each year time is wasted in the Dáil pressurising the Minister to decide on the figure for each authority. This is an extremely unsatisfactory way of doing business. The Minister knows that this is the time of year when estimates have to be approved by local authorities.
Everyone would agree that the country should be administered in a more business-like way. Can one imagine a large private business employing thousands of people, as Dublin Corporation do, not knowing on 21 November what their income for the following year will be. I remind the Minister that Dublin City Council meet on Monday next to agree the estimates.
I have received representations from my party colleagues on Dublin City Council asking that I put every possible pressure on the Minister to make a decision. When the Minister announces his decision I hope the rate support grant will have been increased. At the very least, Dublin Corporation would require that this year's grant be index linked to the cost of living to allow for inflation.
The Minister is aware, I am sure, that services in the Dublin area have been cut to the bone, particularly in the areas of traffic control and safety, where expenditure of comparatively small sums — for example, £50,000 on speed ramps or £200,000 for cycleways — would be a very small price to pay for a reduction in road accidents and which undoubtedly would be self-financing. Other essential items included in the estimate at the behest of the Civic Alliance will be under threat if there is any reduction in real terms in the amount of the grant. Public lighting has been neglected and the excellent work of the parks department is under threat once again.
The provision of housing by Dublin Corporation is almost at a standstill. The once flourishing scheme for purchasing houses, restoring them and letting them to families has just about ceased altogether. Many inner city landbanks accumulated over the years for housing, which Dublin Corporation would now like to sell, lie derelict and useless, an eyesore in the middle of the city. What use are the provisions of the Derelict Sites Act?
We must also consider the staff of Dublin Corporation, who are always under pressure. At this time of the year they naturally wonder if they will have a job next year. Failure to increase the rate support grant to Dublin Corporation, and indeed other local authorities, could well result in staffing levels being reduced with a consequent increase in the already high levels of unemployment. It must be obvious to everyone that if this happens it will be another example of supposed savings in one area being negatived by increased social welfare payments. It is a case of more people being paid provided they do not work.
The rate support grant has been consistently reduced in real terms since it was introduced 12 years ago. Clearly, the whole system no longer works. The very narrow base of commercial rates is quite inadequate to provide a significant part of the local authority revenue. In their desperate search for money councils have savagely increased rates on the commercial sector, particularly on small businesses, which are the backbone of this country and which are now being actively discriminated against. I have little doubt that the actions of the local authority in this area are unconstitutional and we can expect a test case to be taken in the near future. We need a complete rethink on local authority financing in order to broaden the base in conjunction with real tax reform at national level. This type of reform would represent a genuine decentralisation of power, which this country badly needs.
