SINN FÉIN COUNCILLORS DEFEND “PRINCIPLED STAND” IN OPPOSITION TO PROPERTY TAX

LPT rate to remain at 15% after Co Council vote

The Sinn Féin members of Monaghan Co Council were forced to robustly defend their annual opposition to the Local Property Tax when the fixing of the LPT rate to apply in Co Monaghan for 2023 came before Monday’s meeting of the local authority. Before a proposal to retain the 15% increase on the base LPT rate that has applied in the county most years since the tax was introduced was carried on a show of hands vote, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors attacked Sinn Féin for opposing the LPT but taking part in publicity occasions around the official opening of projects that had been supported by Municipal District allocations which had the tax as their source. Sinn Féin’s approach was described as “a principled stand” by current Co Council Cathaoirleach Seán Conlon, while the party’s Brian McKenna pointed out that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil local public representatives in other parts of the county were also opposed to the LPT.

The meeting was told by the Co Council’s Financial Management Accountant Olga Mc- Connon that since the introduction of the LPT €6 million had been committed in discretionary funding to…