Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 July 2015
263. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he is aware of a report that a portion of the revenue raised by the local property tax is being spent on a mayoral chain of office in County Kildare municipal districts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28004/15]
View answerThe Government has given full effect to its policy commitment in relation to the local retention of Local Property Tax for 2015. 80% of LPT is retained locally to fund public services, with the remaining 20% redistributed to provide top-up funding to certain local authorities that have lower property tax bases due to the variance in property values across the State. These measures are necessary to create a balanced system of funding across local authorities. No local authority will receive less income from LPT in 2015 than they received from the Local Government Fund in 2014, unless of course, the authority itself decides to reduce their local basic LPT rate and forfeit the income.
It is a matter for the elected members of Kildare County Council to decide how to spend this funding, in the context of the annual budgetary process, having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources. The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority.
