THE first budget of the amalgamated Limerick City and County Council was passed on Monday night following a nine-hour meeting.
26 councillors – the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael council groups and two Independents – voted in favour of passing the budget, with 13 councillors, mainly Independents, and the Sinn Féin and Anti-Austerity Alliance groups voting against.
One of the most contentious issues was the introduction of an €87 Local Property Tax charge on council house tenants.
A number of council members voiced their disapproval with the proposal, however, Adare-Rathkeale councillor Stephen Keary (FG) said he agreed with the imposition of the tax.
Prompting a chorus of booing from the public gallery, Cllr Keary commented: “I would have no difficulty with collecting the Category A Local Property Tax from council tenants. Every house in the State is subject to this tax.”
His party colleague, Newcastle West councillor Jerome Scanlan, referring to the previous three per cent property tax reduction introduced by the council, said: “The €450,000 saved is the same as the €450,000 we spared. So the main savers were the people at the top end. People with the largest houses are the people who saved the most from that.”
Elsewhere, an additional €100,000 was found to avoid massive cuts to the bin waiver scheme.
The commercial rate remains unchanged, and there was also some relief for owners of vacant properties with the introduction of a new Business Incentive Scheme.
Council chief executive Conn Murray said that in preparing the budget, he was “mindful of the many issues that have been raised in the council chamber and the challenges facing many citizens as we emerge from the last number of years of economic turmoil”.
€600,000 has been set aside to prepare for Limerick’s bid for the 2020 European Capital of Culture “to ensure sufficient resource is available at an early stage” in the event of a successful bid.
Overall, the council budgeted for a €17 million reduction in expenditure but around €13 million of this can be attributed to the transfer of water services to Irish Water.
The housing, development, recreation and amenity departments saw increases of €6.4 million, €0.5 million and €1.7 million respectively.
The roads, water and environment departments saw reductions of €1 million, €13.2 million and €8 million respectively, while the agriculture, education health and welfare budget dropped by €1.5 million and the budget for miscellaneous services fell by €2.1 million.
