KILDARE GENERAL, 26 July 2002: by Cllr Catherine Murphy. This week several County Councils officially got poorer - the ones with the highest population growth, like Kildare.
The Local Government Fund which provides for the day-to-day running of our councils takes little or no account of people. It counts the number of planning applications (although not their complexity), it counts road mileage (but not usage), it counts historical needs but not present/future needs.
Managing population growth and providing quality public services requires adequate financial and physical resources. The public in fast growing areas will continue to feel a sense of frustration when they are expected to cope with the population explosion with little response to the difficulties it creates.
The Census, we are told, is intended to provide the basis for planning our services yet the Needs & Resources model used by the Department of the Environment simply takes no account of the Census.
Kildare, for example, with a population of almost 163,995, was allocated 16.5m euros to run its day to day services in 2002. It compares badly with a county like Mayo who got 24.5m euros and has a smaller population of 117,428.
South Dublin with 239,887 people living in the County got a mere 18.5m euros, an almost identical figure to that of Tipperary SR which caters for 79,213 people, almost two-thirds smaller.
The Local Government fund must of course take account of the ability of each authority to raise funds from other sources such as commercial rates. he existing situation is irrational it discriminates and it must change in the interests of fairness.
The full list of Ireland's local authority area latest populations and their funding last year is here.
