Council to take in €2.5m in property taxes next year

Kerry County Council is due to take in €2.5m next year in property taxes.

The council’s annual budget meeting yesterday heard that more than 15,000 holiday or second homes are registered for the non-principal private residence tax.

New property taxes overall are to be “vital” to the council’s €117m spend next year, head of finance Angela McAllen said.

However, the meeting also heard it was becoming more difficult to collect the weekly rent of €43 from council tenants who were falling into arrears. Rent on the 2,400 council-owned properties was based on tenants’ household income and this was falling.

Meanwhile, thousands of people were on housing lists, but just one rural cottage a year would be built in Kerry next year due to Government policy.

And separated people, in particular men who had to leave the family home, were falling through the cracks when it came to getting social housing, it was claimed.

This group did not appear on the official housing list because they were prevented from qualifying for social housing until their legal situation was complete.

“Something will have to be done for separated people in this county,” said Cllr Michael Cahill. “I know very genuine people who are separated for six to seven years and they cannot qualify for a house.”

The council had an “extensive portfolio” of land for the construction of housing and was paying €175,000 a year to service loans on this. However, here was no guarantee some of this land would not be transferred to the land aggregation scheme, which is designed to relieve councils of loan burdens, said Ms McAllen.