Mayo councillor defends decision to retain variation rate in property tax

THE Fianna Fáil whip in Mayo County Council has defended the decision to retain the variation rate of the Local Property Tax at 10 percent, saying it is the prudent thing to do.

The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael led council voted to retain the variation of the Local Property Tax (LPT) at the current rate of 10 percent, which has remained untouched since 2020.

Head of Finance with Mayo County Council, Peter Duggan, had recommended that the variation on the base rate be increased by 15 percent in order to take in an additional €1.5 million in income to pay for services such as hedgecutting and cover matching funding for capital projects.

Ballinrobe-based councillor Damien Ryan rejected the recommendations of Mr Duggan and instead proposed that the variation of the LPT remain at the current rate of 10 percent. He outlined that the funding would be allocated for the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, hedgecutting as well as €100,000 to be given to deal with the backlog in processing housing grants.

However, a number of councillors called for no increase in the variation at all as the cost of living was affecting people, particularly young couples. Carrowholly-based Independent councillor John O'Malley was the first councillor to voice his objection to any increase in the variation saying the people were getting nothing from the LPT.

Cllr O'Malley stated that people in rural areas felt they were getting nothing and rejected any suggestion that supporting the proposal would see an increase in the number of hedges being cut.

A number of other councillors spoke in support of the comments, saying that people in rural areas were not getting value for their LPT.

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Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn supported Cllr Ryan's proposal while Cllr Ryan hit back at those against his proposal, saying that they would be complaining if they could not find the funding for projects at budget time.

“What I am trying to do is for us to be effective going forward and to function. The only way you can function is with sound economics and you have to underpin that with finance.

“This decision is to hold it as it has been since 2020 but to allow those things to happen and coupled with the fact that the housing grants will get additional resources to try and get things moving. We can only be commanders of the powers we are given here. I have listened to the case that needs to be made but it is in Dáil Éireann where it needs to be made.

“The decision is to make this council function and run for the next 12 months while the alternative is we have a loss of €2.5 million which is not a runner. I am trying to make a prudent decision here and holding it is the way forward while reversing it gives us serious problems when it comes to budget time,” he said.

Cllr Ryan also commented that he would like to see a return of the block grant for local authorities as the current system was pitting larger urban councils against rural local authorities who did not have the large rates base.

Following a vote, 17 councillors voted in favour of Cllr Ryan's proposal with eight against.