‘Loaves and fishes’ budget for Tipp

Tipperary Co Council last week passed a 2022 budget that will see record expenditure of over €194 million in the Premier County, while the commercial rate will remain unchanged at one of the lowest demands in the country.

Praised by Cllr Roger Kennedy as a “loaves and fishes” budget, the estimates for next year were prepared against a backdrop of rising costs and increased pressure on the council to maintain services with present revenue streams. But the 2022 budget sees a five percent increase in expenditure over the current year, while income remains largely static with a projection of €131 million. An Annual Rate of Valuation (ARV) of 0.1919 has been agreed, leaving the Tipperary rate largely unchanged for the last eight years.

The 2022 budget was presented to councillors by CEO Joe MacGrath and Head of Finance Liam McCarthy at an online meeting last Friday. Passed by a margin of 26 votes to four, the greatest portion of expenditure (33%) will again be in the area of Road Transport and Safety. A total spend of more then €57 million has been budgeted for; the comparable figure for 2017 was just €31 million.

Housing and Building is the second largest area of expenditure (18%) with provision of over €35 million. The council's 2022 budget includes increased expenditure for housing maintenance and improvements, and an allocation of over €1.1 million for its homeless service.

‘WE'LL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH HOUSES’

Housing was the focus of a large part of Friday's four-hour budget debate, with several councillors expressing concern that not enough houses are being provided to meet Tipperary’s growing demand. Cllr Pat English said the council is “playing catch-up” with housing waiting lists and the target of building 887 new units over five years falls far short of demand. He said the old South Tipperary Co Council was once building over 300 houses a year, and this is the target that should be revisited.

Several speakers called for the social housing qualification threshold in Tipperary to be put on a similar footing as neighbouring counties, while Cllr Seán Ryan highlighted a deficit in four-bedroom and single occupancy units for people in need. Cllr Siobhán Ambrose spoke of the difficulties of providing housing in every district of a county the size of Tipperary. “We’ll never have enough houses,” she observed, calling for an affordable housing scheme.

Director of Services Sinéad Carr said there are over 3,800 approved applicants on the council's housing list at present. More than half of these are on a scheme such as HAP or RAS, or seeking to transfer. The council requires around 1,600 units to meet the existing need and, between building and bringing 'void' units back into use, this should be achieved by 2025.

Mindful that there would be new requirements, Ms Carr said the council would again look to exceed its housing target, as it has consistently done over recent years. She anticipated that 238 new units would be provided next year alone; there is a lot of work going on in the area of local authority housing between the likes of building, leasing and turning around voids, while the private sector is “effectively dysfunctional”.

€2.6M ON RUBBISH

Cllr David Dunne said one of the biggest problems he had with the budget was collection of derelict site levies. He found that the council was owed €45,000 last year and this figure increased to almost €60,000 in 2021. There were only 39 properties on the countywide derelicts site register and some of them had been on the register for more than 30 years.

Cllr Anne Marie Ryan agreed that the council needs to do more where derelict site enforcement is concerned. The income could be used to enhance town centres and villages. She made the point that dereliction often attracts illegal dumping, which the council then has to pay to clean up.

Cllr John Carroll regretted that the council is paying €2.6 million on litter control and street cleaning at a time when money is scarce. “Cop on; don’t be so mean-spirited,” was Cllr Carroll's message to litter offenders, many of whom would seek services from the council in other areas, he added.

Senior Executive Officer Ger Walsh said there is ongoing engagement with property owners over dereliction. Recouping monies owed can be problematic, especially where there are issues over ownership, while the legal costs involved in bringing cases to court can be “prohibitive”. Mr Walsh added that there was a 19% increase in litter fines in Tipperary this year.

Senior Executive Officer Marion O'Neill said there are now 43 properties on the derelict sites register. The council is engaging with a further 80 property owners and issued 27 notices, which resulted in works being carried out on properties.

‘AUSTERITY BUDGET’

Cllr Michael Fitzgerald formally proposed adoption of the budget - his 42nd as a councillor. Cllr Carroll seconded the proposal.

Cllr English rejected the budget over maintaining the 10% Local Property Tax increase, which was voted for a by majority of councillors earlier this year. He said the LPT is not being used for council services but “to pay off the debts of banks”. Savings from the abolition of town councils were not being put into council services either, and Cllr English felt the council's “austerity budget” was not ambitious enough in the area of housing.

Cllrs Dunne and Tony Black also spoke against the budget, saying the LPT has left struggling families having to choose between food or fuel, while Cllr Anne Marie Ryan proposed reducing rates relief for vacant properties paying more than €10,000 from 70% to 60%. This, she said, would not impact on struggling small businesses and the money it would raise could be spent on enhancing derelict sites in town centres.

Two votes were taken and the budget was passed by 26:4; Cllr Ryan’s proposal was defeated by the same margin.