Councillors vote for local property tax increase

The majority of homeowners in County Tipperary are facing local property tax increases of around €10 a year for the coming three years after county councillors decided on a hike to help fund local amenities and services.

At Monday’s meeting of Tipperary County Council in Clonmel, members voted to increase the levy by 15% above the national baseline figure to apply in the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.

A recommendation by council management to apply a 15% increase for the next five years was rejected by members who instead adopted a proposal by Cllr Michael Smith for the hike to be imposed over the next three years.

An increase on the baseline property tax rate of 10% has been in force each year in Tipperary since 2020. Council officials argued that increasing it to 15% above the baseline would not greatly hit the pockets of homeowners.

For most in Tipperary, the levy increase will amount to about 90 cent a month, they argued.

The council’s Head of Finance, Mark Connolly, said funds accruing from the local property tax were vital to fund local authority funded services across the county.

The funds received from the levy by Tipperary in the current year amounted to almost €27.5 million.

A sum of over €11 million of this total was raised from the tax on homeowners in Tipperary, while just over €16 million came to Tipperary County Council from other counties.

Mr Connolly said that per capita, Tipperary benefited more than any other county in the country from the tax.

He said much of the monies raised from the levy were allocated to individual municipal authorities like Nenagh, which had the discretion on how the cash should be spent.

The monies raised were used to fund amenities such as leisure and art centres, playgrounds, new footpaths in villages, investments in Nenagh Town Park, the North Tipperary Genealogy Centre based in Nenagh, and in rolling out climate action initiatives.

TOUGH DECISION

The council’s Chief Executive Officer, Sinead Carr, said the recommendation to increase the tax was a tough decision for councillors. However, she felt the increase was necessary because the costs of running leisure centres and keeping other community services in operation were going up.

Ms Carr said the recommended increase was small when compared to what applied in the current year, but the extra cash generated would have a significant and positive impact for facilities such as swimming pools and arts centres.

Sinn Féin councillor David Dunne rejected the local property tax as an “unfair” levy. He said the council such reduce the rate charged to the baseline figure.

Cllr Seamie Morris, who like Cllr Dunne voted against the proposal to increase the tax over the next three years, described the recommendation to increase the levy as “a charade”. He said homeowners were already funding leisure centres and other local authority projects through their income taxes.

Cllr Morris (Ind) said the real issue that needed to be tackled to fund local services was for central government to provide more funding to county councils instead of cutting their allocations from the national purse.

Cllr Michael Smith (FF) said lots of projects in his area of Roscrea and Templemore had benefited from the local property tax over the years. Like other councillors who are members of the parties of the current coalition government, he supported the increase.

His proposal to implement the increase over the next three years was seconded by Cllr Phyll Bugler (FG).

The Labour Party’s Cllr Louise Morgan Walsh and Fiona Bonfield also spoke about how funds from the tax had benefited their areas.