Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021
303. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the annual contribution to local authorities over the past five years by local authority in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5834/21]
View answerThe funding system that applies to local authorities is a complex one, as authorities derive their income from a variety of local sources including commercial rates, charges for goods and services, local variation of Local Property Tax (LPT) and funding from Central Government.
Central Government funding of local authorities similarly presents a complex picture, with transfers, both current and capital, coming from a wide range of Departments and Offices, not solely from my Department, for a variety of purposes. Some streams of funding are delivered directly from funding departments to local authorities, while others are routed through departmental agencies.
Most of the funding sourced from Central Government and provided to local authorities must be used for specified services. These can be grouped into 5 broad programme categories: recreational, education, environment, housing and transport.
Additional detail on Central Government funding of local authorities is provided in the Comptroller and Auditor General's Annual Report, accessible at the following link:
www.audit.gov.ie/en/Find-Report/Publications/2020/2019-Annual-Report-Chapter-2-Central-government-funding-of-local-authorities.pdf.
The funding supplied to individual local authorities across all schemes and funding sources, as my Department was configured at the time, is outlined in the attached spreadsheet for the years 2016-2020. These figures include LPT payments, details of which are available the following link;
www.gov.ie/en/collection/ea27d-local-property-tax-allocations/ .
