Local property tax to remain unchanged for 2024

Dublin city councillors have voted to keep the local property tax unchanged for 2024. 

A vote at last night’s council meeting meant that the rate will remain unchanged following an esoteric alliance of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and People Before Profit councillors opting to keep the rate as is.

A last-minute motion put forward by Labour, Green and Social Democrat Councillors that would have seen the rate increased was defeated.

The motion called for €14.5 million in funding to be designated as €12 million for works to improve public streets and €2.5 million to the Area Discretionary Fund, which they said would necessitate raising the tax.

The Local Property Tax, which is based on the value of a property, has a base rate that can be adjusted by plus or minus 15 per cent depending on each local authority, with Dublin City Council usually opting to reduce it by the maximum amount possible, with the Council opting in recent years to keep the rate as is.

With local elections taking place in June next year, the vote has found itself under extra scrutiny.

Last night’s vote has been greeted with a myriad of reactions, with Green Councillor Oisín O’Connor asking “why are Sinn Féin and PBP supporting Fine Gael & Fianna Fáil in giving hundreds of thousands in tax breaks to pension fund landlords by cutting local property tax? This saves the owner of the average home around €4/month.”

O’Connor’s party colleague Michael Pidgeon said that the property tax remaining unchanged means that the budget will not allow for the hiring of 100 extra staff that would clean Dublin’s streets.

Calling the alliance of parties that voted against the motion “unholy,” he posted on Twitter “where is the ambition for the city and our services?”

Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin tweeted “so your streets won’t be cleaned as regularly next year but every owner of a million Euro house gets €375 back. That’s SF/FF/FG/PBP councillor logic as they vote to cut the local property tax again. Residents need services – not populist grandstanding.”

On the other side of the argument, Fianna Fáil Councillor Tom Brabazon told the Irish Times “this year, with the cost of living increases, and the cost of heating homes adding to the burden of families, increasing the rate isn’t the thing to do.”

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin told the paper “if we had proper funding from central Government we wouldn’t be using the property tax to prop us up,” she said.

“We have always said it is not a progressive tax, it is a flat tax rate.”