Cork county councillors reject proposed rates increase
Cork county councillors sat for a marathon meeting with multiple recesses to discuss a proposed rise in rates.
Cork county councillors have unanimously rejected their management’s request for a 3% increase in rates as part of their €530m budget for next year.
After a marathon meeting, agreement was eventually reached to tweak certain elements of the budget to negate the need for businesses to dig deeper into their pockets.
The tone of the meeting was set early.
Independent councillor Mary Linehan Foley, the mayor of Co Cork, said the ‘Our Father’ prayer at its start. When she’d finished, Fine Gael leader Michael Hegarty commented: “I’d say you’ll need more than that [to pass the budget].”
Council chief executive Moira Murrell had said the proposed budget, up €14m on this year, would underpin critical services across the county.
She said it would focus on new housing initiatives and the acquisition of land to develop more social and affordable schemes.
Ms Murrell said there is also a need for more investment in roads infrastructure.
“I’m looking for an increase in the rates to allow for development of critical services at scale, and that we should be progressing them,” she added.
The roads and transportation sector was earmarked as the biggest expenditure, at €135.5m, followed by housing at €119m, and water services at nearly €49m.
Lorraine Lynch, the council’s director of finance, said inflation will cost the local authority an extra €9m just to maintain existing services.
Rates income for 2026 with the 3% hike was projected as €142m, an increase of nearly €10m. Rates account for 27% of the council’s overall income.
Ms Lynch said they acknowledge the impact a rise for ratepayers will have, but pointed out that rates income has not kept track with inflation increases.
If the council had insisted on this, it would have sought a €20m increase.
The council will get around €38.7m in revenue from the local property tax next year, up from €29.7m this year.
After officials spent 90 minutes outlining the budget, councillors adjourned to digest its contents.
On resumption, party leaders had their say.
Fianna Fáil councillor Gearoid Murphy acknowledged the substantial challenges faced by the council in balancing the books, but proposed no rates increase “as businesses are facing a number of challenges".
He proposed 15 ‘tweaks’ to balance the books without the rates hike.
His counterpart in Fine Gael, councillor Michael Hegarty, said he accepted services need to be improved, but not at the cost to local businesses.
For the Independents, councillor Alan Coleman echoed these sentiments, even though 90% of ratepayers pay less than €12,000 per annum.
After another lengthy period of debate, they adjourned again while Ms Lynch examined if Mr Murphy’s suggested tweaks would make up the shortfall if the rates increase was scrapped.
“I’m not asking lightly [for the rates increase]," said Ms Lynch. "If I could get income some place else, I would. We have to provide for our critical services.”
She then spent some time outlining the hundreds of services the local authority has to provide, adding that two-thirds of businesses in the county would pay just an extra €1.40 a week if her proposals were adopted.
After another recess, Ms Murrell said Mr Murphy’s proposals to scrap the rate increase would impact the effectiveness of proposals to enhance a number of planned programmes.
In the event, 34 councillors voted to adopt Mr Murphy’s amendments, with 17 against — the vast majority being Fine Gael members.
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