Minister of State Seán Canney has accused his own government of lacking transparency in how it allocates money to local authorities.
It is understood that Minister Canney attended a meeting with the Minister for Housing and Local Government last month to discuss concerns over Galway County Council having the lowest income of any local authority in the state per head of population.
Despite being allowed to attend Cabinet sessions, the Galway East TD told the Advertiser that the "matrix" – which refers to the formula used by the government to allocate funding to councils – had been kept hidden from him.
"Well, to be quite honest with you, the thing with the funding of the local authorities generally, it's a bit of a mystery," Minister Canney said.
"I've been looking for the matrix, what I would call the calculator that's used, and that is not forthcoming.
"It seems that there's no set matrix other than to tell us there's an equalisation fund for counties who are weaker."
Minister Canney also said that he believed this funding matrix had been "tweaked" by various local government ministers over the years to benefit certain localities and that this was likely the reason behind the lack of transparency.
"Over decades, different ministers would have tweaked that to suit particular local demands, and maybe that's why we don't see what the matrix is like now - because it isn't actually transparent," he said.
The Galway East TD was asked if he was satisfied with his meeting with Housing Minister James Browne.
"I won't be happy until I see an improvement - that's it," he said in response.
"I haven't received anything back, nor have I any enlightenment after what they want to stay when they come back to me."
In Ireland, local authorities with lower incomes receive additional financial support from the government's Equalisation Fund.
As part of this system, each local authority is allocated a "baseline" amount of money, which is calculated via the "matrix."
If the amount of money raised locally by the council falls short of this baseline, then they receive funding from the government to make up the difference.
The matrix was adjusted in 2023 in an attempt to resolve problems associated with the "differing expenditure needs" of different councils and now takes into account five factors, including population, area, income, deprivation level, and performance in relation to national policy priorities.
Minister Canney, however, said that this adjustment had not addressed fundamental financial issues impacting County Galway.
"What I'm saying is that that's all well and good. But before the local property tax came into it, Galway County Council was on a low base since the funding from Uisce Éireann was taken from them, and we haven't seen how the matrix at that stage was in place, because that's the basis of all of it all.
"They don't actually go back to the baseline and say, 'Hold on a minute, how come when we do all of this matrix that we end up with counties like Galway way, way down the pecking order?'
"So what I'm advocating for is that we look at the lowest counties and see how we can actually provide funding to them to bring them up near the national average."
The Minister of State also predicted that, without government intervention, Galway County Council would come under greater financial pressure as councillors were under pressure to reduce the local property tax and commercial rates.
"They also have increased their funding by increasing the local property tax and increasing the rates, but that's not something they can continue to do, nor would I expect councillors to do," he said.
Furthermore, Minister Canney said that historical levels of underfunding had impacted the local authority's ability to make strategic investments that could have improved their capacity to generate income on a long-term basis.
"Our biggest problem in Galway is that we don't have the resources to be able to provide the local fund that's required for projects like rural regeneration schemes. You know, you provide 25 per cent of the money from your local fund.
"So, in that effect, it's actually crushing your situation because you cannot apply for projects because you know you don't have the additional funding, or you can't borrow additional funding because you don't have the resources to do that, you know. It's a chicken and egg."
