Hogan denies he is holding councils to ransom

Environment Minister Phil Hogan has hit back at claims that he is holding local authorities to ransom by withholding funding because of non-compliance with the household charge.

And he said he is concerned about “misinformation being presented publicly and in the media” following his issuing of a circular last week to city and county managers.

Mr Hogan’s circular revised downwards the third-quarter payments of the general purpose grants from the Local Government Fund (LGF) — the largest source of local authority funding.