Dublin City Council agrees to raise Local Property Tax
The vote was expected to pass and will result in three of Dublin's four local authority areas having increased property tax from next year.
Advertisement
The council said the increase will provide almost €16.5 million in additional funding for the city, with almost a third going toward maintaining the city's housing stock.
Since the Local Property Tax was first introduced, councillors have had the ability to increase or decrease the base rate of the tax by 15%.
As the coalition government was being formed last year, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour and the Green Party agreed to vote to raise the tax by 15 per cent for the next three years.
Several councillors opposed to the move believe the property tax hike is unfair on householders and that the extra funding could be raised by collecting unpaid vacant and derelict site levies and development contributions.
Advertisement
Dublin North Inner City councillor and a former Mayor, Christy Burke, voted against the property tax rate increase.
'It's an unjust tax on families given the rise in household goods such as food, heating, gas, petrol and school uniforms. The list is endless. It's an unnecessary burden when families are so desperately struggling,' added Cllr Burke.
'The council seems to forget that the north inner city has some of the most at need families and individuals living there.'
The council's Chief Executive, Richard Shakespeare, in a circular to councillors ahead of tonight's meeting, urged them to no longer apply the 15 per cent discount on property tax, explaining that removing the discount would give the council €16.4m in additional funding.
The Government has already announced that properties are to be revalued for Local Property Tax on November 1st this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
Lyft misses quarterly revenue estimates on competition, weak US travel demand
Aug 6 (Reuters) - Lyft (LYFT.O), opens new tab missed second-quarter revenue estimates on Wednesday, pressured by mounting competition from Uber and softening U.S. travel demand, sending its shares down 7% in after-hours trading. Larger rival Uber Technologies (UBER.N), opens new tab, which offers ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery business globally, beat revenue estimates and issued an upbeat forecast for the third-quarter earlier in the day. Demand for travel to the U.S. has fallen this year, and analysts expect the slump to continue through 2025 as economic uncertainty, trade tensions and visa backlogs make the country less appealing to international visitors. Lyft, which is expanding beyond its North America, posted revenue of $1.59 billion in the second quarter, missing estimates of $1.61 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Rides on its platform grew 14% to a record high of 234.8 million, slightly below estimates of 235.9 million, according to 27 analysts polled by Visible Alpha. Lyft recently completed its nearly $200 million acquisition of European mobility platform FreeNow and has signed a deal with China's Baidu ( opens new tab to introduce the search engine giant's robotaxis in the region. Meanwhile, Uber, which has 20 global partnerships for self-driving technology, said it was in talks with private equity firms and banks to finance the deployment of robotaxis. Lyft on Wednesday also announced a partnership, set to launch later this year, with United Airlines (UAL.O), opens new tab that will allow the carrier's customers to earn rewards on all Lyft rides. With partnerships including DoorDash (DASH.O), opens new tab and Chase already in place, Lyft's entry into Europe positions the company to extend such collaborations into international markets. Lyft said it expects gross bookings to be between $4.65 billion and $4.80 billion for the third quarter, well above estimates of $4.59 billion. The company also reported earnings of 10 cents per share for the June quarter, more than double analysts' expectations of 4 cents. With growth stagnating in major U.S. metros, ride-hailing companies are shifting their focus to medium and smaller car-dependent cities to tap into new markets and drive revenue. Lyft recorded an adjusted core earnings of $129.4 million in the second quarter, above the average estimate of $124.5 million. It forecast current-quarter core earnings of $125 million to $145 million, largely in line with Wall Street estimates.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
China is being urged to explain 'secret basement' under its London 'mega-embassy'
has ordered China to explain why it has redacted blueprints for its 'mega-embassy' set to be built in London, amid fears the building's basement rooms could be converted into 'spy dungeons'. As Housing Secretary, Rayner has given Beijing two weeks to either provide unredacted plans, according to the FT. If China does not do this, the deputy prime minister has ordered it to 'identify precisely and comprehensively' the withheld parts and explain why the floorplan for the basement and other areas of the Royal Mint Court development have been 'greyed out'. According to Rayner's letter to the Chinese embassy, she highlighted that two suites of anonymous rooms and a tunnel were redacted 'for security reasons'. Other buildings on the plans were also partly greyed out, including the Cultural Exchange Building and Embassy House. It also highlights a Home Office request for a 'hard perimeter' around the embassy that may represent a 'material amendment to the application that would require further consultation'. The letter asked for further information in order for the Housing Secretary to make a 'lawful determination' on whether to allow the site to go up, adding that 'no view has been formed yet.' The new embassy, if built, would sit opposite the Tower of London in the former Royal Mint and would be China's largest in Europe. Critics fear the site will become the centre of increased espionage operations and may be used to harass Chinese dissidents. The US has already expressed 'deep concern' over the project, as it sits close to the City of London, home to some of the world's largest financial institutions. MPs in the Netherlands have also raised similar concerns. The site was sold to China by the UK government in 2018 for £255million. A full decision on whether the embassy will be allowed to be built will be made by September. It comes after diplomatic sources warned the Mail on Sunday that the new embassy will have on-site accommodation for more than 200 intelligence officers. A source said: 'There will effectively be a student-style campus for spies in the heart of the City. 'And those spy dungeons are so deep that the sensitive cables are virtually at head height.' The MoS can also reveal that the embassy plans exempt a 'cultural exchange' section from 'inspection and verification' by UK authorities. A US security source said 'cultural interests/exchange' is a 'euphemism for intelligence and security services', adding: 'It's where they often stuff their security and intelligence staff, among other diplomats. 'And if it's a "cultural" centre/space, why do they always declare it off limits in planning documents?' Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: 'Everywhere there is a mega embassy... Chinese state-sponsored, trans-national repression of those who have fled the Chinese state or who criticise it grows dramatically. 'It's simple: a bigger embassy has more spies and more repression.' Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Kevin Hollinrake said Labour had been 'caught red-handed trying to ram through this sinister embassy' in a 'desperate attempt to woo the Chinese Communist Party to bail out their failing economic policies'. He added: 'It is shocking Labour want to sign a legal document that will ban British officials checking what is being built in the embassy building. This is yet another surrender document from a Labour Government that puts foreign interests over British interests.' 'The so-called cultural exchange will clearly be used by Chinese spies and communist bullies to further their political ends.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Pension deals boost profits at Legal & General as employers look to offload defined benefit schemes
Britain's biggest money manager Legal & General saw profits jump as it cashed in on a boom in buyouts of UK pension funds. The buyouts, which are also known as pension risk transfers (PRTs), are when businesses pay financial firms to take over the running of legacy pension schemes. It is one of L&G's most lucrative divisions, with the FTSE 100 firm landing £3.4billion worth of PRT deals in the first six months of the year, up from £1.5billion in 2024. It helped the group, which manages over £1 trillion in assets, make a profit of £859million for the period, 6 per cent higher than last year. L&G boss Antonio Simoes said it planned to expand further into PRT, saying it was eyeing £42billion worth of deals. Employers are keen to offload defined benefit pension schemes, most of them long closed to current employees but which still incur costs. The surge in PRT deals also comes despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves introducing measures to try to encourage employers to keep running defined benefit schemes in the hope they will invest in areas that boost the UK economy. So lucrative is the pension transfer market it has attracted new rivals to L&G. In July, Athora, a European insurer owned by US private equity giant Apollo Global, snapped up Pension Insurance Corp, one of the UK's biggest players in PRT, for £5.7billion. And last week Canadian outfit Brookfield swooped on LSE-listed retirement saving specialist Just Group with a £2.4billion bid. But Simoes said L&G was 'firmly on track' to hit targets and reiterated plans to hand £5billion to its shareholders over three years. The shares dropped 2 per cent, or 5.3p, to 256.2p as analysts were disappointed that its solvency ratio, a key measure of financial strength, had dropped to 217 per cent from 223 per cent. L&G's push into the pensions market comes after Simoes warned Britons were not saving enough for retirement and called on the Government to lower the age of auto-enrolment in workplace schemes to 18, from 22. 'We really need to tackle how much we as individuals and employers are contributing,' he told the Daily Mail. Last month, the Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, announced a review of the state pension age alongside a wider probe into retirement savings.
