Vol. 435 No. 1
124 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for the Environment if he has any proposals for dealing with the anomalies and inequities in the present distribution of rate support grants as outlined in the report on the role of central grants in local finance in the Republic of Ireland of January 1991; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Following the publication in 1991 of the report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies on the role of central grants in local finance, a second phase study by the IFS was commissioned to examine options for the distribution of the rate support grant. A report on this study was published in May 1992 and sent to each local authority for their views. Most local authorities made observations on the report's findings, some favouring implementation of the recommendations in one form or another, and others wholly opposing them. This polarisation of views is directly related to the predicted outcome of a redistribution of grant allocations which was outlined in the report. Many authorities suggested that the report's findings, which were based on analysis of the 1991 spending estimates only, needed to be tested on more than one year's spending to establish conclusive indications of the extent of redistribution that might arise. I agreed with this view and asked my Department to undertake a further analysis of the distribution criteria by reference to the 1993 local authority estimates. The initial results of this further analysis are under consideration at present.
