COUNCILLORS VOTE TO MAINTAIN LOCAL PROPERTY TAX STATUS QUO

PETER HUGHES

The same level of Local Property Tax that has applied in Co Monaghan in recent years will continue to be levied in 2025 following a decision taken at Monday’s meeting of Monaghan Co Council. A nine-eight show of hands vote determined that an LPT varied by +15% on its base rate would again be applied. The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael members plus Independent Seamus Treanor all indicated their support for the +15% rate. The Sinn Féin councillors put forward a proposal that a zero rate apply. Head of Finance Olga McConnon confirmed to the members that the LPT rate being proposed was the same +15% increase on the base rate that had applied for the last five years.

She explained the necessity for the annual decision by pointing out that each year the LPT rate returned to its zero point unless the elected members decided differently. She thought it was worth noting that the LPT rate being proposed would mean that 71% of homeowners in the county would pay the minimal rate of €104. She also noted that income from the LPT was distributed to the county’s three Municipal Districts which used it as match funding to leverage grants that could be up to eight or nine times the amount they matched. Fianna Fáil’s P J O’Hanlon said he thought it important to articulate that for most people the LPT amounted to less than 4c a day.

Everyone would rather not have to pay it but that was the system that was in place. Referring to developments that had taken place in his own town of Carrickmacross in recent years such as the C:TEK buildings, with C:TEK II due to open in October, and enhancement of the Workhouse building, all of which benefited from LPT funding, Councillor O’Hanlon emphasised that the revenue raised stayed within the Municipal District where it was collected and did not go to any other part of the county. “An awful lot of people understand what….