Incoming council must give rates increase ‘serious consideration’

The Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council has warned that rates could have to be increased at some point in the future.

The council’s budget at €75.4 million, was welcomed and unanimously approved by the councillors at a recent meeting. Rates payments contributed €12.7 million to the budget.

“It is not often that we come into a budget meeting, and everyone is in full support of the budget. There’s been many years where there is disagreements and counter proposals,” Cllr John Keogh said at the conclusion of the meeting.

He thanked the council’s director of finance Sean Mullarkey and his team, the executive as a whole, and the councillors for working together in the best interests of the people of the county.

Cllr Keogh said that there had been continued investment into the county and its communities over recent years.

He highlighted the success of the Croi Conaithe scheme, with €11 million over the next three year. This scheme, which was praised by both the executive and the councillors, supports the refurbishment of vacant properties, and allows local authorities to make sites available in towns and villages at a discounted rate to individuals who want to build their own home.

“As I said at the outset, there is no rates increase on this occasion,” Cllr Keogh said. “The reality is that in future years if we want to continue the development of the county, the public realm works, and to promote our county from a tourism point of view, we have to be prepared to make tough decisions.

“In the very near future, we are going to have to look at the possibility of a rates increase.” He said that the incoming council would have to give it “serious consideration”.

Cllr John Cummins also made this point during a discussion on the 75.4 million budget, which he described as a “significant endorsement” of the council’s activity.

“I think the budget, if well spent, will make a big difference to the future of this county,” he said. He added that the council was a county’s chief economic driver.

“There has been no increase in rates for the last seven years, since 2018. If you compare that to some of our neighbouring counties, which in the same period of time, have had to increase their rates by significant amounts. In some areas, up as far as 10 per cent.” Roscommon on the other hand had maintained its level, he said, which was good for the rate payers and an indication of the council’s prudent financial management.

At the start of the meeting, Chief Executive Shane Tiernan thanked the councillors for their "foresight" on maintaining the local property tax (LPT) level. This led to the Government increasing the LPT adjustment figure to €12.5 million.

This was an increase of €1.77m in the baseline funding for 2024 from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This decision, which was made in September 2022 to maintain the LPT for two years has resulted in an increase of €540,000, Mr Tiernan wrote in the budget’s foreword.

“I will stress that we haven’t varied the rate in Roscommon in 20 years and that is not sustainable. That will have to change if we are to attract further funding into the county. We simply don’t have the means for the continued support of match funding, and various other demands, that were ever increasing on local government.” He said that while the council received central funding to establish new initiatives such as the Healthy Ireland programme and climate action, but these would more and more become the financial responsibility of the local authority.

“They will ultimately be our full responsibility and we have to be cognisant of that,” he said.

He said that the budget had risen from just over €52.4 million in 2017 to €75.4 million.

“It’s a very significant increase and has to be carefully managed.”