Gerard Murphy
Ceist:647 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government if he intends to compensate local authorities for benchmarking. [24956/03]
Written Answers. - Local Authority Funding.
Gerard Murphy
Ceist:648 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that members of Cork County Council would have had to increase rates by 67% in 2003 in order to pay for benchmarking and other increases. [24959/03]
Gerard Murphy
Ceist:650 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that in order to pay the benchmarking in 2004 in Cork County Council, rates will have to increase by 20% more than the national rate of increase. [24961/03]
Gerard Murphy
Ceist:653 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government his views on the fact that the type of increases that are necessary to pay benchmarking are totally unfair to the business community and will have a knock-on effect on inflation and competitiveness. [24964/03]
Gerard Murphy
Ceist:654 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government the way in which local authorities are expected to fund benchmarking apart from major increases in rates or massive cutbacks in services. [24972/03]
Gerard Murphy
Ceist:655 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government his views on whether there is a contradiction between his waste management policy, recycling and the cuts caused by his refusal to compensate for benchmarking which the councils will have to implement. [24973/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 647, 648, 650, 653, 654 and 655 together.
Local authorities fund their expenditure, including expenditure on pay, from a variety of sources, including specific State grants, commercial rates, rents, fees and charges for services and general-purpose grants from the Local Government Fund. The issue of benchmarking costs, as with all other current expenditure demands, will fall to be dealt with by local authorities in the context of their annual budgetary process. The amount available from the Local Government Fund will be settled in the context of my Department's Estimates of expenditure for 2004, and I will advise local authorities of their general-purpose allocations for 2004 as soon as possible.