Dublin city homeowners will not have to pay higher property tax bills next year, despite council chief executive Richard Shakespeare urging councillors to increase the current charge by 15 per cent.
However, 2025 is expected to be the last year of local property tax (LPT) discounts for Dubliners, with higher rates in the offing from 2026.
The tax, which is based on the value of a property, has a base rate that can be raised or lowered by 15 per cent by councillors each year. Since the introduction of the tax in 2013, Dublin city councillors have always voted for the maximum discount.
Following the local elections in June, a new voting coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Labour agreed to end the discount.
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As part of the voting pact, the increase would not kick in before the general election, with councillors of the four parties having a “free vote” on the 2025 LPT charge. The base rate will then be applied “for years 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this council term” according to the parties’ agreement.
Mr Shakespeare had urged councillors to reconsider their position on the tax now, due to the state of the council’s finances.
By maintaining the cut from the base rate the council was missing out on more than €15 million in funding for services in 2025, he said. “This money will provide for expansion and improvement to our street cleaning and to the services we provide in our public spaces.”
He pointed out that, for three-quarters of homeowners, the maximum additional payment would be €61 a year or €1.18 per week. Of these houses, more than 37 per cent were valued for LPT purposes at €262,500 or less, meaning owners would pay at most an additional €34 a year, or 65 cent a week.
The Green Party, Labour and Social Democrats supported Mr Shakespeare’s call for the implementation of the base rate, but Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Independents and People Before Profit voted to keep the full 15 per cent cut.
Sinn Féin’s Séamas McGrattan said LPT was “a tax on the family home”. The Greens’ Michael Pidgeon said the 15 per cent reduction didn’t benefit renters or people in social housing, and “it is fundamentally a tax cut for the rich”.
A council survey of Dublin households found 68.7 per cent of respondents wanted the reduction to be retained.
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