Dublin City Council representatives have had some robust exchanges with officials in the Department of Environment over the carve-up of funding between the capital and struggling councils around the country.
In a letter dated January 25th, 2013, then head of finance with Dublin City Council Kathy Quinn questioned a 4 per cent decrease in General Purpose Grant (GPG) funding for that year.
A response from the department in April 2013 referred to an “across the board adjustment” as a result of State spending restrictions which would “ensure that the sector is best positioned to achieve General Government Balance neutrality in 2013 and the medium term as required by the Troika”.
Critical
A further letter from the council’s
Finance Strategic Policy Committee
chairman Mícheál McDonncha on May 23rd was highly critical of the reply which the department issued.
“Responses issued by your department were dismissive in tone, ignored the specific information request made and provided a narrative which had little relationship to the matter raised,” he said.
A more detailed answer from department officials the following month indicated that 97.6 per cent of available GPG funding was allocated to Dublin. It added that the balance of the monies in question was either used directly for water treatment works or given to other councils which were in “an acute financial position”.
Criticisms
However this strategy led to criticisms from councillors. In a letter dated July 9th Mr McDonncha, a Sinn Féin councillor, said the council’s finance committee adjudged the funding redistribution as “flawed” and added that it represented a reward for “poor financial performance” by other authorities.
“This approach . . . does not incentivise the adoption of a prudent approach to resource management,” he continued.
He also mentioned the growing needs of the council due to recent population increases and the number of people commuting to the county for work, and said the 2013 GPG allocation did not support a reasonable level of service provision for the council.
It is a recurring theme for Dublin City Council representatives. Various councillors have criticised the Government for redistributing income received from the Local Property Tax to other counties as part of “equalisation” measures.