The changes in local government funding announced by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, have been roundly condemned by the opposition as a blatant U-turn and the partial implementation of Rainbow government proposals.
The plan is "an attack on local government autonomy" and will "strangle the ability of local government to raise its own finances", the opposition parties claimed yesterday.
According to Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, the announcement only amounted to the implementation of a policy decided just over a year ago by the Rainbow coalition - the allocation of motor tax revenue to the local authorities. However, just a part of the last government's decision on motor tax was being implemented, while the section designed to ensure equity between local authorities was being deferred, he said.
Meanwhile, it was a case of "live horse and get grass" for local authorities that must wait until next year for the allocation of extra funding.
"The Rainbow decision was that 80 per cent of motor tax revenue would be retained where it was raised. The balance of 20 per cent would be allocated between local authorities by central government in an equitable way. The present Government decision defers equity until 1999 and does not specify how it will be achieved," Mr Dukes said.
Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said that after seven months in office, the Minister was only able to alter the previous government's proposals to the detriment of local government.
"The decision to remove a local council's power to determine its level of local commercial rates and to alter the level of motor taxation removes one of the central powers to be granted to local government under my original proposals," Mr Howlin said.
The Minister was using motor taxation revenue to replace existing Exchequer funding, he added.
Mr Eamon Gilmore of Democratic Left said the package represented a "spectacular" U-turn by Mr Dempsey, who had railed against the Rainbow government's decision to abolish water charges and to allocate motor tax revenue to the local authorities.
"Minister Dempsey, who told the Dail on May 7th that the whole system of local government should not be towed behind the family car, now apparently agrees that it is a good idea, after all, to allocate motor tax to local authorities," Mr Gilmore said.
He called on Mr Dempsey to lift the "crippling restriction" of the current recruitment embargo if he is serious about revitalising local government.
He also asked the Minister if he was referring to capital as well as current expenditure when he stated that all State expenditure on non-national roads would be fully financed from motor tax.