THERE will be no change to Local Property Tax (LPT) for Limerick homeowners in 2025.
And not opting to reduce it, according to one councillor at County Hall on Monday, will now ultimately only cost people the price of a “Domino’s pizza”.
Councillors voted this week in favour of keeping the LPT and its variation rate at 2024 levels for 2025 by 36 votes to three at a full meeting of the Council.
This decision, which secures funding of an additional €2.36m for Limerick in 2025, was deemed a very good one by Mayor John Moran. Our newly-elected first citizen believes this move is important in helping raise valuable funds for Limerick.
“The additional €2.36 million raised through the Local Property Tax will support the provision of essential services for Limerick and its citizens,” Mayor Moran commented.
Projects funded by the LPT in 2024 included a new library van, new road sweepers, a velocity patcher to fix potholes, two new rollers and a chip spreader.The LPT has also facilitated an increase in road maintenance; in particular, the amount of Gully Inlet works being carried out on Regional and Local Roads.
Additional funds from the LPT were also allocated to the Fire Service, Library Service and Tourism Development.
Director General of Limerick City and County Council (LCCC), Pat Daly said that this week’s decision by elected members, will guarantee provision of important public services.
However, Sinn Féin councillor Sharon Benson said her party is fully against LPT, which it considers a “very unfair tax”. The Council, she hit out, forget where the money is coming from.
“People out there are still very hard pressed for the cost of living, fuel, bin charges, it just doesn’t end. Everything has gone up and people can’t take it anymore,” Cllr Benson declared.
The City North representative went onto say that people don’t see where the LPT is going, and maintains that it is those struggling the most that are paying for it.
However, Labour Party councillor Conor Sheehan said he supported the principle of the tax and deemed it a tax on wealth. As a home owner himself, he suggested that the decision to keep LPT in 2025 at the 2024 rate will not see him go hungry.
“I pay a small amount of property tax every year. If my property tax was cut by 15 per cent I think it would probably give me back the amount of money to get a Domino’s pizza. I probably wouldn’t even get a Domino’s pizza out of it because I think pizza has become so expensive. But I don’t think giving somebody back an additional, maybe €14 or €16, is going to be the difference between them heating and eating and not heating and eating,” Cllr Sheehan opined.
