County Cork homeowners to see rise in local property tax across four years

Homeowners in county Cork will have to pay an extra 5% per year in local property tax over the next four years, councillors attending this week’s meeting of Cork County Council have decided following a roll-call vote.

Municipal district councils around the county will benefit as the €7.6m over four years (€1.9m per year) generated by this extra 5% will be available to them to carry out footpath repairs and other maintenance tasks.

The 5% increase amounting to €4.25 for owners of houses valued at less than €240,000 will bring the annual LPT bill for these homeowners to €109.25 while the owners of houses valued at between €240,001 and €315,000 will face a hike of €11.75, leaving them with an annual bill of €270.25.

Those with homes valued at between €315,001 and €420,000, the property band into which most homes — approximately 34% in the county fall, will face an annual €16.65 increase, bringing their LPT bill to €382.95.

When the proposed increase was presented by the council’s director of services for finance, Loraine Lynch, it led to a lengthy debate among the councillors.

“We are looking at a period of financial uncertainty, there’s ongoing global economic uncertainty, we are looking at inflation of close to 2% and that’s where we’re looking at in terms of additional costs for the local authority in that we do need funding to meet those costs so we can stand still,” said Ms Lynch.

Cork County Council CEO Moira Murrell described the proposed increase as a “significant ask” for the members, but she endeavoured to give them a context for the increase.

“Each year the LPT goes back to the base rate but, if you take our budget over the past five years it’s increased by 52%, that’s very, very significant,” she said, adding that meant an actual increase in delivery of services and expenditure within the county has increased by 52%.

While Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors supported the increase, Patrick Gerard Murphy of Fianna Fáil, representing West Cork-Bantry, and Michael Hegarty, the Fine Gael councillor in East Cork, brought a joint amendment requesting that the “lion’s share” of the funds generated by the increase would go to the municipal districts, rather than the Municipal District Fund of €500,000 proposed by the council executives.

“We feel that people out there, if they can see a tangible benefit to what happens on the ground, and we, through our communications, can show what we’ve done through the funding, people will be an awful lot more accepting of it,” said the West Cork councillor.

Several councillors opposed the increase, among them the Independent Ireland contingent with Danny Collins of Bantry pointing out that they could not support a 5% increase this year following last year’s 2.5% hike.

A roll call vote was called and the proposed amendment, which endorsed the 5% increase, was carried by 41 votes to nine with the support of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Social Democrats councillors.

Opposing the increase were Independent Ireland, Labour, Sinn Féin and independent councillors such as John Buckley and Peter O’Donoghue.