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

I move to the Local Government Fund. We have signed the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The local property tax, LPT, was introduced, but it is centrally controlled. That became even more evident with the review of the baselines. Population certainly does not matter. We were told that was going to be one of the things that was going to be a factor in the review of the baselines. Take my area, for example, which had population growth of 25,000 between 2016 and 2022. It received the minimum amount. A neighbouring county with growth of 5,000 people received €1 million more. I am just using that as an example. I do not understand the baseline review as it applied to Cork. Cork city has been expanded by bringing in Ballincollig and other areas, yet the city gets the minimum and Cork county makes the big gain from the Local Government Fund by receiving in excess of €10 million. None of it makes sense to me. Some of it is not real money either. There is an announcement of €75 million. It is the same money, but local authorities are in some cases allowed use it differently. It does not appear to be new money. I do not see where it is new money.