'What's collected in Cork county should stay in Cork county' – councillors hit out on funding 

Cork county councillors have threatened to withhold €8m in local property tax  because they are not getting their fair share of funding from Government departments

There are some roads in West Cork which should be closed as they're so bad, Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll said. File picture: Denis Scannell

Angry Cork county councillors have threatened to withhold €8m in local property tax (LPT) because they are not getting their fair share of funding from Government departments.

It comes ahead of a meeting between councillors and local members of the Oireachtas to discuss the fallout from an independent report which showed the local authority wasn't getting its fair share of funding for its size and population.

The AIRO report, which was commissioned by Cork County Council, showed it lagged behind other counties with smaller populations when it came to Leader and Clár funding and had fallen behind on roads funding – to the extent that €750m is needed to bring the county's roads up to an acceptable standard.

Independent councillors Ben Dalton-O'Sullivan, Mary Linehan-Foley and Danny Collins won widespread support when they proposed withholding 20% of LPT they pay to the Government every year for distribution to poorer counties.

"We have a system where, of every €100 paid in LPT in Cork, €20 goes to other counties. This means we hand over €8m annually. We're not asking for additional funding, we are simply keeping what was generated in Cork from Cork people. We owe this to the people we represent,” Mr O'Sullivan said.

Mr Collins said it was clear the county was “under-funded” and this had been going on for years.

Ms Linehan-Foley said the AIRO report contained facts and she is waiting to see how Taoiseach Micheál Martin and other Cork-based Oireachtas members intend to address it.

“What's collected in Cork county should stay in Cork county. We should not take this lying down. Our roads are crying out for funding,” Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O'Flynn said.

There are some roads in West Cork which should be closed as they're so bad. 

We're also getting less than half our motor tax back from Dublin [the Government] for the roads,” Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll said.

Fine Gael councillor Kevin Murphy maintained it was not just Oireachtas members who councillors need to meet, but also secretaries general of Government departments.

Fine Gael councillor Gerard Murphy said the “fundamental problem” is that Cork is so big it was the size of three smaller counties, but is being treated for funding as one.

“There's too much power at central Government level. There needs to be an attitudinal change,” Fianna Fáil councillor Gillian Coughlan added.