Cork City property tax cut by 10%

The local property tax rate in Cork City was cut by 10% last night.

It followed a three-hour meeting of Cork City Council during which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voted together with two independents, Kieran McCarthy and Mick Finn, to support the Fianna Fáil-proposed reduction.

Fine Gael claimed afterwards that the vote will cost the city €600,000.

The party’s leader on the council, Cllr John Buttimer, said the council has voted itself into a deficit position, and that the money will have to be found by either cutting services or raising revenue income streams.

But Fianna Fáil insisted the city will break even next July when the first of three 5% hikes on local authority rents kicks in — bringing in around €500,000.

However, Sinn Féin, which had earlier sought the maximum 15% cut in the local property tax rate, reacted angrily after being denied the chance to formally propose the full reduction.

Tempers flared as they questioned the meeting’s procedure which had been agreed last week by the party whips to take votes on various rate cut proposals until one was agreed.

After a two-hour debate and a 15-minute consultation, Cllr Sean Martin (FF) returned to the council chamber and proposed the 10% cut. Insults were traded across the council chamber over the procedure before a vote was finally called.

Councillors voted 14-11 for the 10% reduction, with Cllrs Ted Tynan and Paudie Dineen abstaining.

“Democracy lost out tonight,” Cllr Tom Gould (SF) said afterwards.

AAA Cllr Mick Barry said the people of Cork deserved a full 15% cut as a step towards the abolition of the tax. “But they were badly let down by the Fianna Fáil party who came in a few weeks ago waving motions high above their heads calling for a full 15% but when it came to the crunch they bottled it,” he said.

FF Cllrs Sean Martin and Terry Shannon, who had earlier in the meeting called for prudent decisions and for a balance to be struck, insisted the city’s finances won’t be worse off arising out of the vote.

The council’s chief executive, Ann Doherty, told councillors at the outset that if the maximum 15% cut was agreed, it would cost €1.7m — or €8.5m over the life of the council. She recommended no change.

Cork Chamber also led calls for the rate to remain unchanged.

Just 21 submissions were made as part of a public consultation process ahead of last night’s vote — 20 calling for a cut, with 18 calling for the full 15%.

There are 51,300 properties in Cork City liable for the LPT — 13,338 of which are valued at under €100,000. 8,685 of those are council homes. 78% of all the properties are valued at under €200,000, with 11,000 valued over this.