Last night, Fianna Fáil voted in favour of a 2% increase in commercial rates at a meeting of Mayo County Council. I would love to see the party using their votes in the Dáil to ask for more funding from central government. Instead, they have used their votes to penalise small businesses which are already struggling to cope. Rates in Mayo are now €75.40 and that is so because of the votes of Fianna Fáil councillors.
Figures released to Sinn Féin show that since 2011 Mayo County Council has seen a net reduction of 31 per cent in funding from central government. This compares to other councils which have seen their allocation recover gradually since 2011.
The figures include transfers from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Local Government Fund. The figures show that overall, funding for local authorities has recovered since 2011, but that this has been massively in favour of Dublin based authorities. Some Dublin authorities have seen of 26% and 31%, whereas Mayo’s figure has decreased by the same amount in the period 2011-2017.
We have a Minister for Rural Affairs from Mayo who constantly refers to large increases he has secured from Government for the county. The most basic form of funding is that which goes to the county council. Promising money from the cabinet table, while starving our local authority, is robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is insulting to the people and businesses of Mayo to be told, again and again, that road improvements and other council initiatives cannot go ahead due to lack of funds this year.
I am calling for the immediate reinstatement of the Local Government Fund to enable Mayo County Council to carry out their core functions.
