Councillors Vote For 6% Local Property Tax Increase

Land grub…

atest press release from Dermot ‘Daisy’ O’Brien, issued on Tuesday, October 15th 2024…

At this year’s Local Property Tax meeting in Wicklow County Council a majority of Councillors voted in favour of setting the LPT rate at 6% above the base rate.

At a meeting with plenty of reasoning, rationale and rhetoric, ultimately 21 voted in favour and 11 against.

Cllr Dermot ‘Daisy’ O’Brien voted against the proposal and according to Cllr O’Brien there is a principled stance to be taken on this tax.

“In many ways the Local Property Tax represents the status of local democracy in the eyes of the Government,” he says. “We are talking about the ‘need’ for the LPT in the context of a 25 billion euro surplus so it’s very clear that the Govt see the LPT as a legitimate means of a Local Authority raising essential funds.

“So while it could have equipped this Council with the means of fixing the paths, roads, streetlights etc instead it was very happy to say – “go and hit the family home again for those funds folks! Forget the cost of living crisis, go and tap the pensioners and the struggling families.”

“So, for me, the message with the LPT is this…

“Make the people pay! Make them pay regardless of their means!

“When it comes to fixing paths, make the people pay.

“Street lights, make the people pay. Playgrounds, traffic calming, road safety, community grants, tourism, housing repair funds, even for the increasing costs of County Council salaries and pensions, make the people pay!

“It was further suggested by the executive that in order to honour national agreements relating to our retained Fire Service, we’ll need to rely on the Local Property Tax! A vital, life saving frontline service on its knees and how do we manage the cost of that within a 25 billion euro surplus, we get the people to pay!

“This is a Goverment policy, this is their model, it exists because they have a comfort zone for imposing a tax on the family home in order to operate local government, and in many ways it’s an indicator of the low value placed on local government by central government.

“Regardless of the optics of some positive projects around the districts, we have to acknowledge that people get frustrated when they see no return on their LPT contributions. Their property tax is not going towards meeting their needs, it goes straight into a pot in Wicklow CoCo and even if they walk out their front door every day and see work that needs to be done, they’ve no guarantees that it’ll ever get resolved.”

Proposed by Cllr Stokes, seconded by Cllr Flynn Kennedy: 6% increase on the base rate of LPT for one year.

In favour: 9 Fine Gael, 3 Fianna Fáil, 3 Social Democrats, 1 Labour, 3 Independents.

Danny Alvey, Mark Barry, Sylvester Bourke, Melanie Corrigan, Avril Cronin, Erika Doyle, Gail Dunne, Louise Fenelon Gaskin, Pat Fitzgerald, Aoife Flynn Kennedy, Patsy Glennon, Shane Langrell, Jason Mulhall, Miriam Murphy, Paul O’Brien, Graham Richmond, Lourda Scott, Peter Stapleton, Stephen Stokes, Edward Timmins and Carole Winstanley.

Against: 2 Sinn Féin, 1 Fianna Fáil, 1 Independent Ireland and 7 Independents. Joe Behan, Malachaí Duddy, Orla Finn, Tom Fortune, Pat Kennedy, Peir Leonard, Ian Neary, Dermot O’Brien, Gerry O’Neill, Warren O’Toole and John Snell.

“I can’t endorse or justify a tax on the family home as the most appropriate means of covering the funding shortfall of Local Government. It’s not equitable and it’s not ethical and therefore I oppose it as a model.

“However, it exists and the majority of Councillors voted in favour of the 6% increase again this year so that’s local democracy in action.“