Local government funding in Ireland: Contemporary issues and future challenges (original) (raw)

Austerity and Irish local government expenditure since the Great Recession

Administration

This paper sets out to establish the extent of austerity in the Irish local government system during and after the Great Recession. Austerity is measured by the adjusted change in local government expenditure from peak to trough years, and is analysed by type of expenditure, service division and local authority. Stripping out the change in local government current spending that is due to expenditure reassignments reveals that the austerity-related reduction in local government operating expenditure is not as large as often portrayed. As for other findings, there are sizeable differences across the aforementioned classifications, with, most notably, capital expenditure cuts far exceeding cuts in current expenditure. The largest decreases in total spending were on roads and housing services, and small rural county councils endured the most austerity, as measured by the initial reductions in current expenditure. In terms of policy implications, the biggest concern is the large infrastr...

Local Government in Ireland (2010)

Local Government in the Member States of the European Union: A Comparaive Legal Perspective, , 2010

This paper provides an overview of the local government system in Ireland in 2009. It deals with important issues such as the erosion of representative local government, the compatability of the Irish system with the European Charter of Local Self- Government, the constitutional role of local government and the mechanisms for ensuring the accountability of local government.

Options for Local Government Finance – an Economic Approach

CountyBackground 2 Alternative rôles for local government Although some countries, such as Ireland and the Netherlands, decentralise very little public spending, most countries decentralise a substantial proportion. But the rôles which lower tiers perform with their different spending functions vary over a wide spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, they have substantial autonomy, and at the other end they are largely agents of the central government. Until the 1960s, UK local authorities perhaps felt they were closer to the autonomous end with most of their services. Today, they perhaps feel they are closer to the agency end with almost all their services, and there are clearly some activities which are purely agency functions, such as handling housing benefit. It is arguable that these different ends of the spectrum require very different sources of finance, as discussed below. 2.1 Largely autonomous services

Regional Dimension of Taxes and Public Expenditure in Ireland

Regional Studies, 2010

In Ireland as in many other countries there has been an ongoing debate on the nature, degree and trends of regional imbalance. However, relatively little is known about the effects of policies at the regional level in Ireland. This paper considers two aspects of public policy namely the fiscal system and public expenditure. In particular regional government accounts are constructed, which identify the level of taxation, subsidisation and public expenditure at the regional level. The analysis of this data confirms that the fiscal system does reduce relative income differences in Ireland. Furthermore there are substantial resource transfers across regions.

Financing Regional Government in the UK: Some Issues

Fiscal Studies, 1996

I. INTRODUCTION Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in the possibility of some measure of devolution to regional governments for at least parts of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, the debate has been particularly advanced, and three of the four main political parties in Scotland are committed to substantial devolution. As in the unsuccessful devolution proposals of 1979, the proposals for Scotland are echoed by similar, though less unequivocal, devolution proposals for Wales. Devolution in England has attracted less enthusiasm, and much less vigorous debate, except in a few regions, notably the North East. Regional government raises a number of finance questions, which are the subject of this paper. The issue of finance has been most prominent in the debate over devolution in Scotland, with intense interest focusing on, at one extreme, the fiscal position of Scotland if it were wholly dependent on Scottish tax revenues to finance Scottish expenditures, and, at the other extreme, on the adequacy and/or effects of giving a Scottish Parliament power to vary income

Funding Arrangements for Local Government In the UK Jurisdictions and Elsewhere

Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland, 2004

The overall UK public expenditure system Funding for devolved administrations The operation of the Barnett Formula The allocation of spending within the devolved administrations Local Government Funding Local government grants and equalisation Accountability and the balance of funding Conclusions

The Expenditure-Financing Decision in British Local Government

Policy & Politics, 1976

Using British data from the past two decades, this essay deals with two inadequacies in much of the analysis of local government spending. The first is that spending alone does not represent the full complexity of any official decision for it fails to relate spending decision to revenues. The second is that political influence is brought to bear on both these dimensions of the expenditure finance decision. Economic decline in many of the industrial democracies has made this choice much clearer. Major cities are threatened with bankruptcy as their debt becomes unmanageable and their resources are depleted. As these choice have become increasingly difficult, the partisan political differences that relate to both spending and finance have come to the surface. Recent studies have attempted to deal with each decision separately. Few have analysed economic and political determinants within a framework which recognizes the simultaneous nature of expenditure and finance decisions. (For a notable exception see Jackson~s paper.)! Our analysis attempts to integrate these efforts using a simultaneous equation model. Like all local representatives, the Labour and Conservative councillors have different attitudes toward the extraction of private wealth in order to provide public services and benefits. It is reasonable to expect that this choice will affect the level of expenditure. Second, the relation between increased taxation and increased spending rests more clearly with elected representatives than many of discrete choices about expenditure alone, which are influenced by professional groups, previous commitments, etc. To provide more services in fact most often means providing more resources. 5

Modernising Local Government Finance

This paper describes the changes to made to local government finance by the Labour government since it came to power in 1997. It also considers possible changes to the Revenue Support Grant System then being discussed. It is concluded that any move to a “plans based” system of grant distribution would be undesirable. Such a system would further increase centralisation and be likely to lead to a great rise in competitive lobbying by local authorities, leading to dissipation of resources

Funding and financing of local government public investment

OECD Working Papers on Fiscal Federalism, 2021

FISCAL FEDERALISM WORKING PAPER SERIES This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies drawing on the work of the OECD's Network on Fiscal Relations across Levels of Government. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language (English or French) with a short summary available in the other. OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the author(s). Working Papers describe preliminary results or research in progress by the author(s) and are published to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues on which the OECD works. This working paper has been authorised for release by Luiz de Mello,