Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

First, I wish a good morning or, as it is now, good afternoon to the witnesses and welcome them. I, too, would like to add my voice to those who commended the efforts that we saw over the past week. Some areas did it on tight resources. When the review occurs, in the case of some of those resources it will be beneficial to look at where those deficiencies are so that the effort can be even better in the future. I will highlight a little of that.

The Comptroller and Auditor General talked about a highly complex picture. His language is benign in relation to local government. In some of the funding, particularly in the local government fund, the word "opaque" does not even go there. I note that from last year the transfer of motor tax from the local government fund to the central Exchequer may make it a little clearer. Until now, the motor tax was paying for water and the local property tax was paying for roads, which seems an Irish way of doing it.

I am pleased that there will be a review of the distribution and I will explore some of that particular aspect. The baselines are an area that would be of significant concern. They predate the local property tax and have their origins in the needs and resources model from 2000. There were data collected right up to 2005, but from then on that has been the base. There have been changes in functions, such as Irish Water, and there has been a pension change recently, but probably what will bring this into sharp focus is the fact that people will want to know where their local property tax is going. It is fine saying that the local authority can retain 80%, but there is a limited amount of discretion within that. In fact, some of the self-fund aspect of it is really a replacement for what might be central Government grants to local authorities.

There are some areas that are particularly badly affected. I will describe the staffing as a case in point because that would have been captured as a need that had to be resourced in that model. For example, Meath has a population 47,000 greater than Kerry but Kerry has 435 more staff. Kildare, with 848 staff, has a population 60,000 larger than Kerry but there would be maybe 150 extra staff working in Tipperary. Some of that is historic but the problem is it does not remain static as it is quite a dynamic environment.

One aspect that does not appear to be taken account of in the distribution model is the census of population. Will Mr. McCarthy confirm that is the case?