County Council funding shortfall comes under the microscope

Galway Oireachtas members criticised

A TUAM Councillor has criticised Galway’s Oireachtas members for failing to secure additional funding for Galway County Council.

The Government’s Equalisation Fund has come under criticism in recent months at County Hall. The pot is generated via money received from Local Property Tax (LPT).

Each of the country’s 31 local authorities retains 80 per cent of this tax fund for public services, while the remaining 20 per cent goes into the Equalisation Fund. This is distributed among all local authorities, with Galway receiving less per population than Mayo or Leitrim.

At a Dáil topical issues forum in June, it was also revealed that Galway County Council received almost €500 less per person in Government funding than the national average, €1,051 as opposed to €1,534. The shortfalls led to councillors in Galway asking the county’s Oireachtas members to step up and intervene on their behalf.

Lack of Progress

Speaking at the July plenary meeting, Tuam District Councillor Shaun Cunniffe, who first raised the issue back in February, was critical of the lack of progress being made to address their funding shortfall.

“We are quickly coming up to budget time again. So many other local authorities are getting millions more than us, and that is impacting on our ability to address issues like footpaths or putting money towards arts projects,” he warned.

“We need to get our Oireachtas colleagues to do something soon. Writing letters and trying to organise meetings is not enough at this stage. We are getting nowhere.”

Addressing his concerns, County Council CEO Liam Conneally stated they had met with Galway’s Oireachtas members back in March, where they raised the issues councillors brought up at earlier meetings.

The council’s executives, alongside the leaders of the various political groups in the chamber have since met with Junior Transport Minister Seán Canney on July 10 to discuss the problem further, while another meeting with him took place prior to July's plenary meeting.

“From my perspective, we are giving all Oireachtas members as much information as possible to explain why we should be getting more funding. We will continue to meet with TDs as often as needed to get the money we need,” stated Mr Conneally.