Thomas Pringle TD has today condemned that over €7m in household charges paid by property owners is being used to finance the agency collecting the levy.
Speaking on the matter today, the Independent TD for Donegal South West stated: “The fact that such a large proportion of the intake from the Household Charge, equating to charges paid on 72,000 households, is being used to pay for staff, the household charge database, and administration costs is a disgrace when so many communities are facing cuts to essential services and the closure of local facilities.”
“The costs needed to run the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) have actually risen and the bill has reportedly ‘expanded’ since it was set up last year, while local authorities are being forced to cut millions from community, arts, and sports grants, as well as local facilities such as parks and libraries due to cuts in Government funding.”
“The Government has already cut local funding and as a result, Donegal County Council has recently been informed that they must make a further cut of €4m by the end of the year, which will have a devastating effect on many local services. The Minister for the Environment has claimed that this is due to the low level of registration for the Household Charge in Donegal. But it’s pretty clear where a lot of this money is going, rather than funding local services as it has been purported to be doing.
The fact is people in Donegal were experiencing cuts in services before the introduction of this charge. Already this year library services have been cut by €600,000 resulting in the closures of Killybegs library and Ramelton library, as well as the reduction in hours for Donegal Town and Ballyshannon libraries. And now we’re all being left to foot the increasing bill of the agency collecting this charge,” added Pringle.
“It is simply not acceptable that it’s costing so much to fund the LGMA and that these costs continue to increase for no apparent reason, which has raised many questions for me. With at least 600,000 properties which haven’t registered for this charge, it’s pretty clear where a considerable amount of it would be going.
As it stands many people simply do not have the money to pay for this charge and many of those who did struggled to do so. This is not what people were told they would be paying for and displays once again how out of touch this Government is from the hardship that so many people are experiencing,” stated Pringle.
