Tipperary Council finance chief indicates more rates hikes on the way in next few years

Commercial rates levied on Tipperary’s business community will rise by 5.5% next year and Tipperary County Council’s finance chief has indicated further hikes in the levy are on the way over the next few years.

A large majority of Tipperary County Council’s elected members approved the commercial rates increase at Tipperary County Council's marathon 2025 Budget meeting in the Civic Offices in Clonmel last Friday.

It follows on from a 5% increase in rates imposed this year on the county’s businesses.

The Council’s Head of Finance Mark Connolly told councillors Tipperary County Council has the fourth lowest Annual Rate of Valuation (ARV) for commercial rates in the country and the lowest of its neighbouring counties.

And he said at the mininum the Council should increase its commercial rates in line with the annual rate of inflation every year over the life time of the current elected council to cover ongoing increases in the operational costs of running the local authority and its services.

The Council’s €248.8m Budget for 2025, including the commercial rates increase, was passed by 27 votes to eight at the end of the Budget Meeting that lasted over four hours.

The vote taken by councillors means the Tipperary County Council's commerical rates Annual Rate on Valuation (ARV) will rise to 0.2126 next year as a result of the 5.5% increase they approved.
But the upper limit for qualifying for the Council's Commercial Rates Early Payment Rebate scheme will increase from €26,000 to €27,500.

Council management had originally proposed a 6% increase in commercial rates in the draft Budget but following workshops and consultation with councillors, Council CEO Sinead Corr tabled a proposed compromise 5.5% rise at the start of the Budget meeting.

Ms Carr said the Council’s Budget was prepared against the background of a number of challenges facing the local authority.
She highlighted the range and breadth of the services the Council provides compared to 15 years ago and cited inflation as a particular challenge pointing out that it had risen by up to 20 per cent over the past number of years.

She explained this has led to an effective reduction in services due to the Council having to absorb rising costs and it couldn’t continue to do this

She noted the local authority now has a legal obligation to reduce the green house gases it produces by 50%.

Ms Carr also noted that councillors had requested extra funding over the past year for roads maintenance, the provision of CCTV in key towns, to increase the turnaround of social housing voids along with the commitment to meet Climate Change targets.

She stressed extra services could only be paid for by an increase in rates.

Ms Carr pointed out that grants and subsidies from central government accounted for 53% of the Council’s income.
The remainder has to be raised through the Local Property Tax and commercial rates.

Both Ms Carr and Head of Finance Mark Connolly outlined that the vast majority of small rates payers would actually have their rates bill reduced instead of increased even with the 5.5% increase if they avail of the Early Payment Rebate Scheme.

Mr Connolly outlined that the extra €1.9m funding raised from commercial rates would enable the Council to invest an extra €500,000 in public lighting, €400,000 in operational costs, €350,000 in roads maintenance, €250,000 in CCTV scheme, €200,000 in strategic workforce planning and €200,000 in Climate Action measures.

During the lengthy debate that followed as Council management went through the Council’s roads, housing, environment, planning and development, community & economic development and other services, Sinn Féin councillors Annemarie Ryan and David Dunne proposed a number of cost savings amounting to €270,000 in order to reduce the commercial rates bill.

Cllr Ryan proposed the Council scrap the meals catering budget for council meetings, the conferences allowances and councillors training allowance while Cllr Dunne proposed the Council suspend the hosting of civic receptions for two years, scrap the Cathaoirleach’s projects allowance and reduce the Strategic Policy Committee costs.

Cllr Dunne urged his fellow councillors to “look into their hearts” and approve these spending cuts to reduce the rates bill.

The two councillors’ proposals were referred to the Economic SPC for consideration and they were informed the funding from some of the allowance cuts they put forward were provided for in legislation or funded.

After over three hours of deliberation, the meeting adjourned for lunch.

When it reconvened, Fine Gael Cllr Marie Murphy proposed on behalf of the Fine Gael members, that the Budget containing a 5.5% increase in commercial rates be approved but the upper qualifying limit for the Commercial Rates Early Payment Rebate Scheme be increased from €26,000 to €27,500.

She also proposed that the €200,000 the Council proposed to invest in strategic workforce planning and further €200,000 proposed for Climate Action measures be transferred into a dedicated town and village development fund to tackle dereliction.

She requested Council management to involve councillors in the Budget process months sooner because by the time they attend the pre-Budget workshops 95% of the Budget’s contents are drawn up.

Cllr Murphy noted that 10 years ago, the Council was asked to pass an annual budget of €130m and the 2025 Budget had grown to €248m, which amounted to a significant increase in anybody’s book over a relatively short period of time.

Cllr Michael Smith, on behalf of the Fianna Fáil councillor group, seconded the proposal.

He said it wasn’t an easy decision and there had been a lot of “soul searching” but they had to look at the stark reality that the Council must ensure it has the income to improve the standards of the servicees it provides to the public.

He said the new town and village development fund was going to be very important for targeting dereliction.

Clonmel Cllr Pat English of the Workers & Unemployment Action Group, who had supported the Sinn Féin councillors cost saving suggestions, proposed the Budget be rejected.

He declared that he made a commitment to the people who re-elected him to the Council that he would oppose all stealth taxes including the Local Property Tax and commercial rates.

He said central government has starved Tipperary County Council of funding over the years and this Council should be looking for more funding from the Government rather than placing the burden on rate payers.

Cllr Annemarie Ryan seconded his proposal and voiced disappointment that no real cost savings to increase the Council’s budge were made despite the hours of deliberation and the amount of proposals they had put forward.

“While I completely accept the local authority has to balance the books, it’s very frustrating to go through the Budget line by line and not make any changes.

“The country is awash with money and we made countless suggestions but nearly every single one of them refers back to central government.”

The former café owner pointed out that she had run her own business for 17 years and costs increases like this commercial rates hike were akin to “death by a thousand cuts” for small businesses.

Like Cllr English, she blamed lack of funding from central government for the Council’s need to increase the rates and seconded his motion to reject the Budget.

As Cllr English’s proposal was a direct negative to the Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil backed proposal, a vote was only taken on the latter.

There was a second vote on Cllr Annemarie Ryan’s proposal to amend the provisions of the Council’s rates waiver that can be availed of by the owners of vacant commercial properties.

She proposed the 100 per cent relief applied to commercial properties with a rates bill of less than €5,000 remain in place for one year only and after that an 80% rebate be applied.

In the case of properties with a commercial rates bill of between €5,000 and €10,000, she proposed the relief be reduced from 80% to 70% and that the relief applied to properties with rates bill greater than €10,000 be reduced from 60% to 50%.

The proposal was defeated by 31 votes to four with Cllrs Ryan and David Dunne and Independents Niall Dennehy and Pat English the only councillors voting in favour.