Brian Cowen
Ceist:53 Mr. Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment the steps, if any, he has taken to commission stage two of the report on local authority finance. [12369/96]
Written Answers. - Local Authority Funding.
Batt O'Keeffe
Ceist:57 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for the Environment if he intends to introduce property tax in respect of all households in view of the KPMG consultant report. [10760/96]
Mary Coughlan
Ceist:63 Miss Coughlan asked the Minister for the Environment when he will publish the report on local authority finance in view of his reply to a parliamentary question of 9 May 1996 in which he stated that he was making arrangements for the report to be published. [12368/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 53, 57 and 63 together.
I expect that the stage 1 report will be published before the end of this month. An announcement will be made at that stage as to the further steps proposed to be taken in the matter.
The stage 1 report sets out the expenditure requirements of local authorities over the coming years and identifies, in a very preliminary way, a range of possible options from new funding arrangements. These include a local income tax, a local property tax and a local sales tax. However, considerably more work would require to be carried out before deciding whether any of these options could lead to a fair, equitable and reasonable system of funding local government. Besides, the Minister has previously indicated in this House and elsewhere that the subject of local authority funding can only be satisfactorily addressed on the basis of broad political consensus.