Budget deadlock in Tipp

Tipperary Co Council is to convene again this week after failing to reach agreement on its budget for 2026.

A five percent increase in the commercial rate demand proved the stumbling block for councillors, many of whom voiced their reluctance to add to the 5.5% rates hike imposed on local business owners this year. The council executive sought the increase in order to cover rising costs. But after more than five hours of debate in Nenagh last Friday, some of which involved private discussion between various groupings, councillors resolved to adjourn the budget debate to another meeting this Friday.

Introducing the draft budget for 2026, CEO Sinéad Carr said the €275 million package of expenditure was prepared against a backdrop of spiralling inflation and increased costs in roads construction, energy and lighting. The council would deliver more than 1,700 new housing units by the end of next year and would have to maintain these together with all of its existing stock and tenants without any increase to its staffing levels.

‘A COUNTY MOVING FORWARD’

Ms Carr pointed to the many positives in Tipperary at the end of 2025, including rising population and employment numbers, private housing development starting to get underway again, and increased tourism recognition, as evidenced in the county’s recent inclusion in the Lonely Planet travel guide. Vacancy and dereliction in Tipperary town centres is also being tackled and this formed a key aspect of the new budget.

“These are proof points of a county moving forward,” Ms Carr told the meeting. But she added: “It is crucial that we build on that progress and not allow our county to start moving backwards.”

The CEO said a five percent rate increase would help the council to meet its demands in the challenging environment of the present. She described the rate in Tipperary as “modest by national comparison”, pointing out that it has long been one of the lowest demands in the country, the fourth lowest in 2025.

Ms Carr spoke of working in local authority since the 1990s and experiencing all types of challenges. That experience taught her how difficult it can be to recover once a local authority stops investing in a county.

She told the councillors that they would be doing a “huge disservice” to the people of Tipperary if they failed to adopt the budget, a move which, she warned, could undo much of the progress of recent years. The council had to continue with its service delivery so that businesses could expand and Tipperary could remain investment-ready. “We have a great county and we have an obligation to make sure it remains a great county,” Ms Carr said.

‘PLAY CATCH-UP’

Head of Finance Mark Connolly said the Tipperary rate had been maintained at a low level when it should have been increased in line with inflation. “We’re trying to play catch-up,” he said.

Councillors David Dunne and Anne Marie Ryan said they would be seeking a rates abatement scheme. Mr Connolly said it would not be possible to do this for the coming year as the council would have had to hold a public consultation on the matter in 2025. This met with criticism from Cllrs Dunne and Ryan, who said they were not informed of the public consultation requirement in any of the budget workshops that had taken place during the year. Ms Carr said the issue did not come up at any of the workshops.

Mr Connolly said the proposed five percent increase would result in an increased payment of €2.25 per week for the vast majority - 93% - of ratepayers. This was before consideration of the rates incentive scheme, whereby ratepayers could avail of a six percent discount if they cleared their bill before July.

Rates and Local Property Tax would enable Tipperary Co Council to increase investment in such areas as roads, burial grounds, libraries and the retrofitting of houses, despite an anticipated €600,000 increase in the cost of doing business for the council in 2026.

“If the budget is not passed today, I’d have to seek cuts to other services,” Mr Connolly told councillors. “I have to be blunt about it. That’s the reality of the high-inflation environment we live in today.”

‘JUST ABOUT HANGING IN’

But Fine Gael councillor Tom Acheson said his party had “difficulty” supporting the budget. He and his fellow councillors did not think that small business owners should have to “support the cost of everything else”.

“A lot of people are just about hanging in there,” Cllr Acheson said. “We’re not grandstanding. We’re about supporting budgets.”

Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Michael Smith said Fine Gael was not the only party “struggling” to accept the budget. “In effect, what’s being asked in this document is for us to ask businesses to reach deep into their pocket to pay more when we know that the funding is not coming nationally.”

Cllr Smith was of the view that Tipperary is “struggling”. He said he would “reluctantly” propose adoption of the budget and would do so only with conditions. These included increasing the rates incentive discount to seven percent and holding “active engagement” with Tipperary Chamber of Commerce and all traders so that all ratepayers would know of the benefits of the scheme. Cllr Smith also wanted Tipperary’s Oireachtas members to attend a meeting with the council in January over roads funding. Further conditions included a community lighting scheme for rural parts of Tipperary and the establishment of a working group on vacant properties, as outlined by the executive.

The meeting was then adjourned for 25 minutes of private discussion, after which councillors attending the meeting online complained that they were not being informed of what was happening. “We don’t know what’s going on in the background,” Cllr Dunne fumed, calling for the meeting to be adjourned.

Cllr Smith seconded this proposal, saying councillors needed more time to discuss the alternative. The meeting was adjourned to this Friday in Nenagh.