Cork County Council has approved €516m Budget for 2025

Cork County Council has approved a Budget for 2025 which amounts to €516 million.

Elected members voted in favour of a 2% commercial rates increase, which due to an abatement would lead to approximately 92% of the county’s rate payers paying less rates, at Monday’s meeting of the local authority.

The final vote on the budget which is up from €458.3m in 2024, was carried by 20 votes to 11 against, with 14 abstentions.

The original proposal by the council executive had been for a rates increase of 3% with a 3.5% abatement for all ratepayers. This abatement would increase proportionally up to a limit of €7,000.

Following a recess, Fianna Fáil councillor Gillian Coughlan proposed as a compromise a rate increase of 2% with the 3.5% increasing proportionally for bills up to €12,000.

Introducing the budget, chief executive Moira Murrell said that it would provide for a "very significant investment" across a range of services and added that a proposed capital budget of €1.4 billion expenditure over the next three years would also see €656m investment in social and affordable housing and €585m on roads.

The key point in the debate over the budget was the provision for additional funding for a number of measures, including €1.4m for town centre improvement which would provide for the employment of up to 24 additional outdoor workers around the county. 

There were also provisions for funding for taking estates in charge as well as design of relief road schemes.

The proposal for a rates increase led to a lengthy debate among councillors with many voicing objections to asking for a larger contribution from local businesses rather than central government.

A number of councillors, who are small business owners, voiced their objections to any proposed rates increase, citing increasing costs in terms of automatic pension enrolments, and extra bank holidays.

Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue suggested that it was wrong to keep turning to business owners with rates increases when costs could be trimmed within the council budget. He suggested looking at the proposed investment of €14m in a new council fleet and cutting any expenditure on electric vehicles which he said were "economically unviable" and "not environmentally friendly". 

He also suggested cutting funding entirely for measures to combat climate change.

Referring to ongoing trips by council delegations abroad, he suggested these should also be cut. 

“The annual St Patrick’s Day trip to the US costs around €50,000,” he pointed out.

Fianna Fáil councillors spoke in favour of their compromise proposal. Gearóid Murphy said he would be voting for the compromise "to preserve the very progressive measures in this budget". 

“We can’t have it both ways – if we don’t fund this we can’t have the outdoor staff,” he said.

Former mayor Frank O’Flynn said that the outdoor staff should be in post by St Patrick’s Day while Patrick Gerard Murphy said that anybody who voted against the compromise put forward by his party would be actually be voting for the current rates which would lead to business owners paying a higher annual rates bill.

According to his calculation, a rates payer faced with a bill of €20,000 would pay €20 less under the proposed scheme as opposed to the scheme in force for 2024.

Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry said there should be focus on ‘in house’ issues relating the correct calculation on rents payable in council housing in order to streamline matters and make savings.