Record €95.7m in rates collected last year by local authority

One of the country’s largest local authorities collected a record €95.7m in rates last year, up more than €16m from the peak boom year — 2006.

Cork County Council’s rates-gathering service in 2011 exceeded its budget target by almost €2m. Head of finance Ger Power told councillors yesterday the rates collected last year were up €5.6m on 2010.

He acknowledged it was “very difficult to collect money in the current financial climate”, which astonished some councillors who could not understand how the local authority was pulling in significantly more money than it did during the Celtic Tiger years.