COUNCILLORS at Dun Laoghaire Rathdown have voted to
adopt the council’s annual budget for 2012, which controversially did not
include any decrease in commercial rates.
There will also be significant spending cuts and
increased service charges in some sectors.
The budget adopted by the council on December 21
included a minimum cut of nine per cent (
?¬2.6 million) in the Local Government
Fund it receives annually from the Department of Environment and Local
Government.
The Local Government Fund is the main source of
funding that local authorities receive from central government.
County Manager, Owen Keegan also confirmed at the
meeting that if the Government did not achieve its collection target of
?¬160
million from the new household charge, the amount of funding local authorities
received would be reduced even further.
The budget also saw a number of increases in local
service charges such as burial fees. This means that the cost of a plot in
Shanganagh Cemetery, for example, will rise from
?¬2,700 to
?¬2,900 and burial
fees will increase from
?¬765 to
?¬940.
Cuts
By adopting the budget the council also cut its
homeless services fund by over 60 per cent from the
?¬1,936,800 it spent last
year to
?¬720,900 for 2012. The budget cuts also mean that the council’s social
inclusion fund has been slashed by 50 per cent.
However, a spokesperson for the council said that
regarding social inclusion and homelessness, the local authority would provide
broadly the same level of services in 2012 as funding would be sourced from
alternative resources.
Meanwhile, councillors also agreed to reduce the
amount that the council spends on conference expenses from
?¬131,700 down to
?¬101,700.
Cllr Melisa Halpin (PBP) had urged councillors to vote
against the budget as she said flat rate charges would impact most negatively
on the poorest in society.
“By voting for this budget we are saying that it is
okay to have a nine per cent cut to local government funding and are willing to
hand that on to people who will have to take flat rate increases in things like
the burial charges, cuts to playgrounds, and to libraries,
? she said.
“It is all about getting the individual to pay a flat
rate which means that a millionaire pays exactly the same as a pensioner.
?
One of the most controversial aspects of the budget is
that it did not contain any cut in commercial rates. This is despite the fact
that the council cut rates by two per cent last year and in 2010. Fingal County Council and South Dublin County
Council also cut rates in their budgets for 2012.
Cllr Gerry Horkan (FF) said that a lot of businesses
in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown would regard this budget as one of the worst in terms
of commercial rates.
“We will be the most expensive county in the Dublin
region,
? he said.
“That is not good for attracting businesses into this county
and retaining business in this county.
?
A total of 19 councillors voted to accept the motion
put forward to adopt the budget and five, including Gerry Horkan (FF), Aoife
Brennan (FF), Tony Fox (Ind), Melisa Halpin (PBP) and Hugh Lewis (PBP), voted against.
Following the meeting the county manager criticised
the Department of Environment for failing to compensate the council for losses
it incurred following the revaluation of commercial rates in the county.
Losses
The revaluation process conducted in 2009 by the
Valuation Office took into account the values of commercial and retail
properties to ensure that all businesses paid a fair level of rates.
Mr Keegan said that because the Department of the
Environment did not compensate the local authority for these substantial losses
of income, the council could not decrease commercial rates this year.
“The failure of the department to compensate the
council for the adverse impact of a deeply flawed revaluation process was very
disappointing,
? he said.
In response, a spokesman for the Department of the
Environment said:
“The adoption of the budget, including the setting of the
annual rate on valuation (ARV), is a reserved function of the local authority.
The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has no
function in the matter.
?