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DUBLIN CITY COUNCILLORS have voted to maintain the Local Property Tax at its minimum level after a debate over whether to keep the tax low or to increase it to raise funds to clean up the capital.
The LPT is an annual charge on all residential properties in the State which came into effect in 2013. Essentially, if you own a property you must pay the tax.
The amount you pay is based on the value of your property, which is self-assessed. There are 20 different LPT bands to cover increasing property values.
The LPT is designed so that it has a base rate but may be modified at the discretion of local authorities who can increase or decrease the base rate by 15%.
For example, based on Revenue’s Local Property Tax calculator, a person who owns a property in Dublin City Council valued at €350,001-€437,500 pays LPT at €405 per year, which reduces to €344 if councillors vote to reduce it by 15%.
In DCC there has been an annual debate over whether councillors should exercise this discretion and keep the tax at the minimum level or use it to raise additional funds for the council’s coffers. Each year it has been kept at the minimum.
Those who favour increasing it say that the 15% change is marginal compared to the overall cost of the tax and that collecting it would mean a cleaner city.
Dublin City Council management proposed hiring around 100 new staff to do street cleaning in the city.
— Michael Pidgeon (@Pidge) October 2, 2023
All it took was for councillors to stop voting to cut the Local Property Tax this year.
And in the last few minutes, a majority voted to cut it. No new cleaning staff, so.🤦♂️
Councillors were told at a meeting last night that a proposal was on the table to recruit dozens of workers to clean public streets in Dublin city centre using revenue raised from the property tax.
The number of cleaning jobs that would be created would be between 90 and 105.
Councillors were split over whether to increase the property tax and allocate the funds to cleaning after a summer of public discontent with the state of Dublin’s streets, or to keep it low amid the cost of living crisis.
Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and People Before Profit were in the unusual position of being in agreement with each other by all refusing to support an increase in the tax.
Fianna Fáil Councillor Deirdre Heaney called it a “very unfair tax on Dublin citizens” and said the party would not be supporting an increase.
“The cost of living and the cost of property in Dublin is much higher in Dublin than it is anywhere else in the country,” she said.
Councillor Cieran Perry, speaking for the Independent Group, said that Independents did not have a “unified position” on the matter but that his view was that he would not back a “home tax increase on our constituents during the cost of greed crisis”.
“It isn’t a progressive tax as it doesn’t take into account ability to pay and it is a disproportionate burden on households with lower incomes,” he said.
There's nothing worse than the desperation of Greens, L and SD Cllrs on here saying "but it's only €5 euro a month!" When discussing LPT. Anything in isolation, seems minor.
— Cllr Hazel De Nortúin (@HazelPBP) October 3, 2023
LPT should never, and will never save the city. Your parties destroyed that idea a long time ago.
However, the Green Party, Labour Party and the Social Democrats sought to bolster the tax to raise €14.5 million for the council.
Councillor Darcy Lonergan of the Green Party said: “The streets of Dublin are an extremely valuable asset. They have been walked on by and will continue to be walked by by generations of Irish people and by people around the world.”
They’re how we travel to work, how we socialise, where we go to celebrate, especially the recent sporting events that we have. Yet our own people are describing our streets as dirty, sticky, an old town, and smelly.
She added: “Councillors have spent hours talking about how dirty the streets have been and now we have the opportunity to actually do something about it,” she said.
“The DCC have been trying their best to clean it as much as possible, but they’ve been very, very clear on what they need. We need more resources and we need more people on the ground and for that, we need more money.”
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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Online and linked to a PPS number. Also, a revamp would significantly increase turnout rates
@David Healion: and rolling so you can change address or be added to register at any time of year. Once the PPS number is used that shouldn’t be a problem.
@Jane: pps is not enough. Any person working or long enough in the State can have a PPS number.
But only citizens can vote in Referendums.
@Good Early: Not true, legal residents of all nationalities can vote in the local elections, legal residents of EU nationalities can vote in the European parliament elections, Irish and British citizens can vote in the general election, only Irish citizens can vote in the presidential election and referendums.
@Conor Black: agree, that’s why said only citizens can vote if Referendums.
PPS is fine for the others, but not enough referendums
@Good Early: passport number could be used
@Seamus Mac: Not everyone has a passport.
The system thats there works once it’s all done in time & not at the last minute. I’ve moved house over the years & part of the process is changing to the local Register when I move. Not a blind panic 2 weeks before I need to vote.
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: I know several people in both camps in the recent referendum who got two voting cards for different polling stations. They all used them to vote twice
We also had foreign nationals registered who had no right to vote.
As we have no specific figures this is worrying. It’s seriously undermines our democracy.
The government should automatically enroll all citizens once they are 18 and post a voting card. No duplicating registrations. Whether people vote is another thing.
I received two polling cards. First one was correct, second one had my name on it, but my next door neighbours address. So I could have voted twice couldn’t I? I’m never asked for ID at the polling station probably because it’s local and manned by local people. All they do is put a line through the address when you show the polling card. If I’d gone again hours after I’d voted, I could have voted a second time probably.
@Rachel Giles: I know several people who got two cards and did vote twice. It’s poses a serious threat to out democracy
@Rachel Giles: Getting two voting cards doesn’t entitle a person to vote twice. If your name is only on the Register once, and they send out two voting cards in error, and you try to vote twice, you will be caught and this is a criminal offence.
@Rachel Giles: or you could have been arrested !
My Son who is 19 had a vote in the equality marriage referendum but had none in the 8th amendment referendum . He did not move house at all . No polling card came . Why was he taken off !
@Elaine O’ Brien: the same happened to my mother and when she got onto them she was told she had to prove she was Irish! She worked in the hse and was born and lived in Ireland all her life. It’s a joke
@Elaine O’ Brien: you don’t need the polling card to vote. Did you check the register to see he wasn’t on it?
@Sandra: checking the register isn’t 100% fool proof. My son didn’t show on it because we were searching for him using HIS name and address, he got a polling card with HIS name on it but next doors address so we never would have found him on the register
@Elaine O’ Brien: Just because you don’t get a polling card, doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have a vote. Your name might be on the register of electors and that gives you the right to vote. Check the register online on your local County Council website. There is a facility to register on it also. Not sure how they monitor registration for who can and can’t vote in different elections when registering online!
@Elaine O’ Brien: No polling card does not mean he was taken off the register
You can pay your car tax & dog license online but not change your address on electoral register online.
The whole political system needs total reform. Just because the local teacher or publican can appear on TV and in interviews before a general election spewing out well rehearsed party rhetoric doesn’t make him/her any more competent for the higher level jobs in gov. We need capable and proper qualified people in gov to get a competently run country and unfortunately that excludes most of the current shower of chancers we’ve got in the dail.
@Adrian: totally agree with you. Especially in the case of allocating ministers’ positions, people should have, not just a qualification, but experience in given ministry.
@Adrian: I totally agree. Anyone elected should have mandatory training in economics and public policy. They only seem talented at talking shite and paying themselves. Most jobs require qualifications. We wouldn’t let a teacher become a doctor without qualifications. It’s a joke
Still a half measure as we need an electoral commission as well with the power to put some order on the current chaotic process
The register as it stands gives many opportunities for fraud
The UK system isn’t quite as efficient as presented (though it’s undeniably better than the Irish one). You have a central entry point online, but it still gets sent to the local councils for semi-manual processing, which is fine but seems an unnecessary step, and can lead to issues where some councils are better organised and more efficient than others. If you have a specialised division centrally that does nothing else obviously they’re going to be better resourced and better trained.
Do what they do up North,you have to submit your National Insurance Number to register,going door to door to update the register is too much for one man these days given the population explosion etc.
When my father died they took my name off the register also despite the fact that I registered tre Gaelinn, had to go to the local courthouse and deal with some snooty officials to have it restored and no apology from them either.
There is significant problems with voters register. I have two polling cards for people who have died. Note highest vote yes in DBS in country yet second lowest turn out ie 54%. This has more to do with the voters register than apathy.
How long after you leave the country can you retain the right to vote??
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