I doubt it. I do not agree with targeting one section of the community to pay for local government. I hope we will overcome the difficulties when I am on the other side of the House and the Minister is on this side.
If cashflow was evenly spread throughout the year, as the Minister suggests in the case of water charges, adequate funding could be provided to local authorities. However, in the past, local authorities made huge efforts to collect their water charges at the beginning of the year, receiving up to 60 per cent or 70 per cent of them in some instances. It helped their cashflow and enabled them to collect the outstanding charges throughout the year.
According to my research, local authorities, both urban and county, have had similar experiences to three local urban councils in County Meath. My town of Trim was 50 per cent down on cashflow at the end of March. It received a rate support grant last year, to 30 March, of £14,500 while it had collected service charges of £30,000. This year it received a grant of £22,000. At this time last year it had £44,000 at its disposal; this year it has £22,000. Navan is 33 per cent down and Kells is 60 per cent down. Will the Minister look at this problem as a matter of urgency, even as his legislation is pending, to assist the cash flow situation?