Longford Ratepayers to see yearly increase in rates

The Annual Budget 2025 meeting for the Longford County Council took place this week on Monday, 2 December.

The meeting saw the Draft Annual Budget 2025 announced and presented by John McKeon, the Director of Finance and ICT.

There were many figures of interest but the Longford County Council took a particular shine to the increase in commercial rates.

After the budgetary meeting concluded Cllr Séamus Butler was the first to pose a question.

“There are other things that affect the increase in rates other than the increase in percentage from certain cohorts.

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“The ratepayers pay for it which could be 5,000 or 10,000 up.

“You say 84% of current ratepayers will benefit.”

Butler then highlighted that many businesses in the county are struggling with the ever-increasing rates.

“There is a local supermarket whose electricity has gone up 200%,” he explained.

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“Now the County Council are putting up the rates again, the scheme of putting up rates on an annual basis for four years amounts to an increase, as of 2024, of 17%.

Cllr Butler proposed an increase of just 5% on larger ratepayers but agreed with the rest of the Budget.

He pushed on the 5% increase believing that if it went higher it would scare large companies away from Longford such as Centre Parcs, Abbot and Technimark.

Cllr Uruemu agreed with Cllr Butler's fears, saying, “I am not in favour of the rate increase, I think with the challenges businesses are facing year on year with increased costs for their businesses and increased minimum wage, there is a lot of reliance on our businesses.

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“I worry that we might see a lot of businesses Iost as a result of this.

“Are we releasing these risks as a result of the increase and what mitigation measures are in place,” she concluded.

Mr Mckeon responded to their fears pointing out that 411 ratepayers (28%) will have no increase over the next five years, these are smaller businesses.

The next band of ratepayers (421), slightly larger will receive an increase of 1% meaning they will see a yearly increase of €12.

The higher ratepayers will see an increase of 2%, €46 annually and this will apply to 221 ratepayers.

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Another 22 in the highest bracket will see an increase of €85 increase every year which equals 2.5%.

According to the presentation, 85% of Longford ratepayers will benefit.