Written Answers Nos. 818-832
828. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the value of land purchased by individual local authorities for the purposes of social housing and other developments that have been transferred to the land aggregation scheme from 2008 to 2012. [35295/13]
View answer829. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the value of land purchased by individual local authorities for the purposes of social housing and other developments that will be transferred to the land aggregation scheme in 2013. [35296/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 828 and 829 together.
The Land Aggregation Scheme was introduced in 2010 as part of revised arrangements for the funding of land for social housing purposes.
From the introduction of the Scheme up to the end of 2012 lands with an estimated total loan value of €147.1 million have been approved into the Scheme in respect of 68 sites in nineteen local authority areas. The figure of €147.1m includes €111 million in respect of loans which have been fully redeemed by local authorities and the funding recouped from my Department, under the original terms of the Scheme. The remaining €36.1 million is in the form of annuity loans with the Housing Finance Agency (HFA), for which local authorities are making repayments to the HFA, and recouping these payments from my Department.
To date in 2013, four sites with an estimated annuity loan value of €13.4 million have been approved into the Scheme.
830. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the local authorities that use the Agresso accounting system; if cost savings could be made by transferring to a system with international accounting standards. [35297/13]
View answerThe Agresso financial management system is currently in use in all local authorities except for Cork and Wexford County Councils and the town councils within these counties, and Dublin and Cork City Councils.
I am satisfied that the financial management systems in use in the local government sector allow financial management and accountancy functions to be undertaken and operated in a cost-effective manner and in line with best practice in financial management and modern accounting standards.
The Local Authority Accounting in Ireland Code of Practice, issued under Section 107 of the Local Government Act 2001, is available on my Department’s website at www.environ.ie.
831. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide details of bank overdrafts and the interest paid on these for individual local authorities for the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. [35298/13]
View answerLocal authority borrowing is subject to the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001; borrowing is a reserved function under Section 106 and requires the sanction of the appropriate Minister. Borrowing proposals, including overdrafts, must be submitted to the relevant Minister together with a resolution of the local authority members approving the proposed borrowing. The extent to which recourse to overdraft is used by local authorities for normal operational purposes is dependent on the relative timing of income receipts from their various revenue sources and expenditure in respect of their current and capital programmes. The year 2011 is the latest for which audited information is available. Information requested in respect of overdrafts, sourced from audited Annual Financial Statements, is set out in the following table.
Information in relation to the amount of overdraft interest paid by each local authority is not available in my Department.
|
- |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
|
- |
€ |
€ |
€ |
€ |
|
Carlow County Council |
1,136,620 |
4,164,593 |
2,538,060 |
0 |
|
Cavan County Council |
3,685,516 |
1,688,788 |
2,048,699 |
0 |
|
Donegal County Council |
33,440,470 |
23,773,495 |
16,589,309 |
8,025,491 |
|
Fingal County Council |
2,840,169 |
0 |
0 |
63,356 |
|
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council |
0 |
2,496,063 |
0 |
0 |
|
Galway County Council |
12,542,390 |
19,364,968 |
17,338,634 |
2,978,883 |
|
Kerry County Council |
2,195,576 |
593,445 |
0 |
4,254,788 |
|
Kildare County Council |
157,142 |
0 |
1,009,493 |
5,528,463 |
|
Kilkenny County Council |
1,082,161 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Laois County Council |
4,421,467 |
11,228,681 |
5,377,506 |
0 |
|
Leitrim County Council |
201,687 |
0 |
1,985,209 |
1,063,085 |
|
Limerick County Council |
0 |
0 |
1,151 |
0 |
|
Longford County Council |
2,294,044 |
0 |
1,375,574 |
3,221,987 |
|
Louth County Council |
0 |
1,045,475 |
0 |
1,780,594 |
|
Mayo County Council |
28,486,445 |
26,748,385 |
12,949,306 |
14,496,911 |
|
Monaghan County Council |
4,035,035 |
592,905 |
969,868 |
170,540 |
|
North Tipperary County Council |
644,770 |
22,474 |
1,700,978 |
202,253 |
|
Offaly County Council |
0 |
0 |
87,992 |
1,395,496 |
|
Roscommon County Council |
1,816,823 |
2,653,182 |
3,711,432 |
1,750,046 |
|
Sligo County Council |
9,561,660 |
8,824,004 |
929,736 |
5,868,304 |
|
South Tipperary County Council |
0 |
0 |
101,412 |
0 |
|
Waterford County Council |
3,109,390 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Wexford County Council |
1,092,347 |
7,564,132 |
6,362,228 |
10,250,971 |
|
Wicklow County Council |
0 |
4,738,291 |
15,403,388 |
11,029,208 |
|
Cork City Council |
816,944 |
4,428,913 |
2,941,504 |
0 |
|
Dublin City Council |
41,636,443 |
28,534,987 |
0 |
0 |
|
Galway City Council |
0 |
0 |
464,085 |
0 |
|
Limerick City Council |
0 |
0 |
1,279,876 |
0 |
|
Waterford City Council |
725,871 |
0 |
848,998 |
5,489,653 |
|
Drogheda Borough Council |
51,906 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Arklow Town Council |
0 |
159,697 |
1,314,249 |
552,955 |
|
Athlone Town Council |
0 |
0 |
520,065 |
0 |
|
Ballinasloe Town Council |
0 |
186,688 |
0 |
0 |
|
Bray Town Council |
2,281,548 |
0 |
4,788,900 |
3,489,841 |
|
Carlow Town Council |
251,078 |
0 |
286,066 |
0 |
|
Clones Town Council |
745,502 |
386,683 |
0 |
0 |
|
Cobh Town Council |
0 |
204,859 |
285,152 |
0 |
|
Dundalk Town Council |
646,223 |
1,852,583 |
0 |
1,814,549 |
|
Dungarvan Town Council |
3,993,324 |
4,777,558 |
4,016,224 |
4,668,111 |
|
Ennis Town Council |
19,577 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Kells Town Council |
0 |
0 |
7,171 |
58,929 |
|
Killarney Town Council |
91,973 |
274,216 |
0 |
0 |
|
Letterkenny Town Council |
5,810,279 |
6,008,965 |
1,777,587 |
2,377,418 |
|
Monaghan Town Council |
0 |
0 |
0 |
216,372 |
|
Navan Town Council |
0 |
159,968 |
0 |
0 |
|
Templemore Town Council |
22,861 |
9,230 |
0 |
0 |
|
Tralee Town Council |
0 |
66,670 |
1,828,016 |
0 |
|
Trim Town Council |
0 |
0 |
0 |
108,482 |
* The table shows only those Councils with overdraft balances in their Annual Financial Statements during the period specified in the question.
832. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the savings that can be made through shared services with other local authorities. [35299/13]
View answerLocal authorities have identified total savings of €839 million since 2008. In the period since the preparation of the Local Government Efficiency Report, from 2010 to end 2012, the savings achieved and projected are reported at €561 million. The majority of the efficiency savings identified relate to staffing reductions and procurement.
Shared services have been identified in the Local Government Efficiency Review and the Public Service Reform Plan as an important opportunity to make further savings in administrative costs, while streamlining and improving service delivery without impacting on front-line services.
To drive the reform agenda, and in particular shared service initiatives, in the local government sector, a dedicated Programme Management Office (PMO) has been established which reports to a high-level Oversight Group.
Overall, 31 operational areas are being examined for potential as a shared service or other collaborative approach that may provide efficiencies. The PMO has adopted a comprehensive methodology for the development and evaluation of projects including, gathering and analysing baseline data, business case preparation and peer review of business cases.
Treasury Management, Payroll, Transactional HR and Procurement have been prioritised in the shared services programme in the short to medium term. It is estimated that annual savings of the order of €6.4 million could be achieved (excluding procurement) from these projects. The figures will be subjected to third-party validation as part of the project processes.
In relation to procurement, the project is being led and co-ordinated by Kerry County Council as the lead authority in the Local Authority National Procurement Office. Since 2010, local authorities have reported procurement savings of approximately €109 million. Kerry County Council is working with the new Chief Procurement Officer in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and further savings of between €16.25 million and €19.5 million have been targeted for the sector in 2013.
