The Government is to introduce a new independent financial watchdog system to prevent waste and excessive expenditure in local authorities.
Yesterday Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said he would be introducing legislation this week allowing for the establishment of special audit committees for every council in the country.
The committees would contain a majority of independent members drawn from the financial experts and accountants who would advise councillors and the council about spending plans, estimates, accounts and other financial areas. It is envisaged the committees would report directly to councillors at their monthly meetings.
Mr Roche said there had been great scope for local authorities "to tighten up on the area of future efficiencies and that audit committees would be of great help to enable councillors to make these decisions".
He said the current format of financial information and reports was problematic for councillors.
"Councillors have major difficulties because there is a very complex estimates process in local authorities," he said.
Plans for the new committees, which will be in force from next year, were announced alongside the Government's funding plans for local authorities.
Councils are to receive €950 million in general funding from the Exchequer, an 8 per cent increase on last year.
This funding, which will be used to pay salaries for staff and other current expenditure, was more than adequate to meet the requirements of local authorities, Mr Roche said.
He described requests from some local authority management for increases in excess of 10 per cent as being unrealistic.
"My message to them is welcome to the real world," he said.
He said that because of the level of State funding for local authorities, he did not expect significant increases in commercial rates.
"I have urged local authorities to continue to exercise restraint in setting increases in commercial rates and local charges," he said.
"This is important to the long-term viability and competitiveness of commercial operations and to the overall competitiveness of the economy".
He said the average increase in commercial rates was less than 4 per cent in 2006.
Yesterday's allocation is part of a €5 billion in State funding for councils next year, the majority of which is to fund housing, road and water infrastructure projects.
Councils will have an overall budget of more than €9 billion next year, half of which will be funded from charging for services, rates and borrowing.