2026-06-23

Galway County Council has been underfunded for years, and the figures are stark. Galway County Council receives €1,051 per person, while the average across the State is €1,534. If Galway County Council was receiving that State average, its annual budget would increase from €203 million to €296 million, an increase of almost 50%. It is undeniable that we are not receiving our fair share in County Galway. This has an enormous impact on all of the services which are provided by the council, whether roads, environment, recreation, community facilities and especially housing, where we have serious issues in maintenance, homeless services, voids and much more. This underfunding means that key projects like Dunguaire Castle and the Craughwell wastewater upgrade are being left in limbo because the council cannot provide for them from its own resources. One of the most frustrating aspects of this is that we have never received any good reason or explanation from Government as to why Galway does not receive its fair share. I have asked parliamentary questions repeatedly, but the Department still will not disclose the formula as to how it is calculating the funding for local authorities and why Galway is losing out. That is not good enough. It is a serious lack of transparency. Why, Minister, does Galway lag so far behind other counties, and when will the Government rectify this unfairness?

Galway County Council continues to be underfunded to the tune of millions of euro. This is something that again shows the poor budgeting of this Government, the fact that it is unable to fund Galway County Council as is needed. This has consequences. This is something that the people of County Galway live every single day. It is seen in the state of our roads. If one looks at the state of the roads across Conamara, that is a safety issue. People do not have basic infrastructure. If we take the health of the people of County Galway, if the Council does not have the maintenance funding to be able to conduct necessary maintenance on homes, that will have health implications for its people. Can the Minister of State tell us why the Government continues to underfund Galway County Council? Can he please give us an exact reason as to why, because this is not the first time I have raised this in this Chamber. Five years ago, myself and Deputy Kerrane raised it with the Minister at the time, and we have seen no resolution come as a result. It is high time for action.

As my colleagues have said, the funding Galway County Council receives is below the national average, yet it is the second biggest county in the State. It makes no sense and it has a huge impact on every single person who lives in County Galway. It impacts council resources, and it has a significant impact and is really seen on the ground in terms of outdoor staff, who have been absolutely slashed across Galway County Council. I am very proud to represent east Galway, and in particular the town of Ballinasloe. It is regularly pointed out to me in relation to the maintenance of the streets, roads and homes across Ballinasloe and the towns and villages throughout County Galway. It makes no sense. When we look at the funding year on year for the second largest county in the State, it is typically second last or last in terms of the level of funding it receives. This is stifling development across the county of Galway. We also see question marks over value for money where the outdoor staff are not there. With simple basic things like the litter that has to be gathered up, the services have to be contracted out. That is not value for money. We should have the staff and resources to do it ourselves.

I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter and providing me an opportunity to update the House. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The funding system for local authorities is a complex one, as authorities derive their income from a variety of sources, including commercial rates, charges for goods and services and local property tax, LPT, as well as funding from Government Departments and other bodies. Central government funding of local authorities is made up of transfers, both current and capital, coming from a wide range of Departments and offices for a variety of purposes. The Department is an important source of this funding, and it provided €99.8 million in 2023, €114 million in 2024 and €149.3 million in 2025 to Galway County Council across a number of schemes and funding sources. The amount of funding provided under housing programmes and voluntary call schemes such as the URDF is largely determined by individual local authority ambition and activity. In 2025, a sizeable portion of funding to Galway County Council from this Department, almost €93 million, was in respect of a range of capital and current housing programmes. It is crucial to note that the Department does not provide specific funding allocations to local authorities for housing delivery, but rather recoups the relevant local authorities as projects advance and claims fall due for payment in line with the relevant scheme conditions. With regard to the URDF calls 1 and 2, Galway County Council secured funding for the one project applied for, and under URDF call 3, Galway County Council secured €3 million. This is close to the average funding provided to all of the non-metropolitan area local authorities, of which the council still has €2.91 million available in its fund. In respect of LPT funding, an important determinant of this allocation for Galway County Council is the baseline, which is the minimum level of funding available to each local authority from LPT. Following a review in 2023, the baselines for each local authority were adjusted in accordance with five criteria: population, area, deprivation levels, an authority’s locally raised income and the achievement of national policy priorities. Galway County Council received the second largest increase of any authority. There has been a further increase in the overall baselines in 2026, in line with the expected increased yield from the revaluation. As a result of both of these changes, Galway County Council’s baseline has seen a significant increase of over €7 million, or almost 50%, in a three-year period. While Galway County Council has the second largest area and the tenth largest population of any authority, on balance, this would appear to be fairly reflected by the fact that Galway County Council now has the fifth highest baseline in the country. Apart from housing funding and LPT, in 2025, Galway County Council benefited from many other funding streams across the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, including allocations from the Local Government Fund to cover the impact of national pay agreements and the stranded costs associated with water transformation. While I appreciate the challenges faced by Galway County Council, I am confident that every effort has been made to assist the sector in recent years.

The Minister of State's response does not address the key questions as to why Galway County Council is losing out and what specific formula is being used to calculate the funding to local authorities. It is important to say that Galway County Council has done everything that has been asked of it. It increased the local property tax - I did not support that, but it did it - on the specific promise that increased funding would be coming from central government in response to that. It also increased the rates, but the increased funding has not come. The Department threw the council a couple of million here and there previously, but we need a long-term, sustainable solution. We have lost out on an awful lot of funding over the years. The council executive has come to the Government with a specific ask for an uplift of €15 million. I call on the Minister of State and the Government as a whole to ensure that happens.

One thing I have learned in this Chamber is that if the Government does not want to explain something, it will say it is complex, and that it is a little bit too complex for us to understand. It is not too complex for us to understand. We are fully and acutely aware that Galway County Council has continuously been underfunded. How do we know that? It is because Galway County Council has been clear about it. It has been raised in meetings, including county council meetings. The council has been clear that the funding is not there to deliver the services that people need. The Minister of State might not be the Minister in charge in this regard, but he is a Minister of State at the Department of Finance. He fully understands that in order for things to function, they need to be funded. That is what we are asking the Government to do here.

It is true to say that the level of funding is not adequate. Galway County Council, even with the recent uplifts in additional funding that have come from here and there, is so far behind due to years of underinvestment and not receiving an adequate amount that it is going to take some time to catch up. That is why the specific ask from the council should be heard by the Government and made available. The nub of the issue remains. There are smaller counties with smaller land areas and smaller populations that have more outdoor staff, more council resources and receive more money from central government than Galway County Council. That is the nub of the issue, and it has not been answered again this evening. None of us is any the wiser as to why that is the case for Galway County Council.

I again thank the Deputies for raising this issue. As acknowledged by the Deputies across the Chamber, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Browne. I will conclude by acknowledging the current financial environment in which all local authorities, including Galway County Council, are operating and the pressures facing them in respect of general inflation and higher costs. I get that from my own local authority as well. Recently, the Department has received representations from the Galway County Council executive and elected members in relation to its LPT allocation and baseline. The baseline has been increased twice in just three years, as I mentioned in my earlier contribution. The intention is that baselines will be reviewed every five years in line with the updated census data, as well as periodic reviews in line with LPT revaluation cycles. It would not be appropriate or equitable to examine the baselines of individual authorities outside these sector-wide reviews. Furthermore, it is important to note that the LPT allocation represents just 12% of Galway County Council's revenue income in 2025. It is a finite income source, being dependent on the level of LPT collected in Galway and across the State. Therefore, the scope for significant increases is limited. With this in mind, Galway County Council must ensure that it is effectively leveraging all funding opportunities at its disposal and identify where it can increase its allocation by seeking more funding for projects that are ready to be delivered from the range of available funding calls. It is important also to focus on locally raised income sources. I know the council has made significant progress in this area in recent years.