Cork City and County Councils to receive €11.5m increase in funding

CORK local authorities are to receive an increase of over €11.5 million in funding.

The move follows a review of Local Property Tax (LPT) baseline funding to local authorities.

Every local authority receives a minimum amount of funding from the Local Property Tax, supplemented by funding from the exchequer where a local authority’s LPT income is lower than its baseline.

A working group, with representation from the local government sector, was set up earlier this year to review the allocation of baseline funding. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD has announced that following this review Cork City Council will now receive an additional €1.5 million in funding, while Cork County Council will receive an increase of more than €10 million in 2024- the highest increase of all the local authorities.

Currently, Cork City Council is awarded a baseline Local Property Tax (LPT) funding of €9,698,643. In 2024, the introduction of the added funding will increase this figure to €11,198,643.

Cork County Council’s baseline LPT funding will rise significantly from €8,402,758 to €18,453,747 during the same period.

Announcing details of the funding, Minister O’Brien said that he was aware that local authorities were facing growing challenges due to the increase in demand for services and the growing cost of providing these.

“This significant increase in funding should go a long way towards easing the pressure on the sector.

“Since 2020 I have been committed to a review of the baseline funding of local authorities and I established a working group earlier this year to examine the issue. I am pleased to announce that [the] funding has been guided by the review that has taken place and the recommendations of the working group.”