A big rise in funding for local authorities next year was confirmed yesterday by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Cullen.
The extra money will help fund the benchmarking pay increases and remove the need for "undue increases" in service charges, the Minister said. Dublin City Council, however, announced an increase in refuse collection charges of 23 per cent.
Opposition politicians claimed that other local authorities would also be forced to increase charges, in spite of the extra funding announced by Mr Cullen. They claimed the funding rise was a "stunt" with next year's local elections in mind. This was denied by the Minister.
Local authorities, he said, would receive total funding of €752 million next year, an increase of €92 million or 14 per cent. Separate funding for the maintenance of non-national roads is to be announced in January.
Mr Cullen said the scale of the package provided "removes the need for undue increases in rates, fees and other local charges which should be set at reasonable levels." He expected the co-operation of local authorities in this regard, he added.
Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, welcomed the increase, but said it did not mean that local authorities would be able to avoid imposing punitive charges on the public. "Development levies are still being enforced and will have a detrimental effect on industry and on the ambitions of young people to buy new homes," he said.
"Some local authorities are refusing to impose development levies, but these authorities will still face a significant shortfall in their funding."
Mr Eamon Gilmore, Labour's spokesman on the environment, said the extra funding would take "the sting" out of service charges in an election year. "The increased allocation, however, will still leave local authorities almost €70 million short of the amount needed to pay benchmarking increases, and will inevitably result in increased commercial rates and/or service charges."
Mr Cullen, however, claimed the package put councillors and local officials in a strong position ahead of agreeing local estimates in the coming weeks.
The Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, said the increased allocation would pay €5 million of his council's €14 million benchmarking bill. This was as much, he said, as the council could have reasonably expected. The 23 per cent increase in household bin charges, he added, had "absolutely nothing to do with benchmarking". Instead, it was part of a move by the council, which had the cheapest waste charges in the State, towards recouping the actual cost of the service provided.
Members of the city council were told on Monday night that the annual cost of having a large wheelie bin would increase from €154 to €195 from the beginning of January.
Mr Fitzgerald said the council would have a system next year that required those who produced more waste to pay more, while people who produced less would also be charged less.