Homeowners in Dublin will not have to pay higher property tax next year, despite council chief executive Richard Shakespeare urging councilors to increase the current rate by 15%.
However, 2025 is expected to be the last year of local property tax (LPT) discounts for Dublin residents, with rates increasing further from 2026.
The tax, which is based on property value, has a base rate that city council members can raise or lower by 15 percent each year. Since the tax was introduced in 2013, Dublin City Councilors have consistently voted in favor of the maximum discount.
After June’s local elections, a new coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Greens and Labor agreed to scrap the discount.
As part of the voting agreement, this increase will not be triggered before the general election, and MPs from the four parties will hold a “free vote” on the 2025 LPT Bill. The base rate will apply “for the second, third, fourth and fifth years of this Board term” as agreed by the parties.
Mr Shakespeare had called on MPs to reconsider their stance on tax immediately, citing the state of parliament’s finances.
He said the council would miss out on more than €15 million in service funding in 2025 by maintaining the reduction from the base rate. “This funding will go toward expanding and improving the services we provide in our street cleaning and public spaces.”
He pointed out that for three-quarters of homeowners, the maximum additional payment would be 61 euros a year, or 1.18 euros a week. More than 37 per cent of these homes are valued at less than €262,500 for LPT purposes, meaning owners will pay up to an additional €34 a year, or 65 cents a week.
The Greens, Labor Democrats and Social Democrats backed Mr Shakespeare’s call for a basic tax rate to be implemented, while Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Independents and People Before Profit called for a full 15% cut. Voted to keep it.
Sinn Féin’s Seamus McGrattan said the LPT was a “family tax”. The Green Party’s Michael Pidgeon said the 15% tax cut would not benefit renters or council housing tenants and was “basically a tax cut for the wealthy”.
A city council survey of households in Dublin found that 68.7% of respondents wanted the cuts to remain the same.
