Longford has the "highest performing local authority in Ireland" with record €80m budget

Longford County Council will have a record budget of over €80 million for 2026, it was announced during the annual budget meeting of Longford County Council.

This figure also makes Longford County Council the highest performing local authority in Ireland in terms of the increase in its budget over the last 10 years.

The 2026 term marks the 11th multi-million increased budget in a row.

During Monday’s meeting, the county council’s Director of Finance, ICT, and Innovation, John McKeon, outlined the figures for the members and detailed the ambitious plans for 2026 and the years ahead.

A report distributed to the councillors highlighted the headline items in the 2026 budget which included no change to local property tax rates from 2025-2029 and an increase to the budgets for local roads, housing maintenance, public lighting, tourism development, walkways, and hedge cutting.

The report also stated the budget is “robust enough to withstand any external challenges that may arise.”

In terms of year-on-year income from goods and services, the figures within the report showed an increase across all sectors except Uisce Éireann which generated €3.2M this year but is projected to take in €915,977 less next year.

Parking fines and charges generated €746,103 this year, and are expected to tip the €1M mark next year.

Housing rents meanwhile generated €10.3M this year and are projected to take in over €11.3M next year.

In terms of lost rates income from Lanesboro Power Station, the report said subsidisation would come from Central Government. Indications are that this subsidy will cease from 2027 on however.

Revenue and capital expenditure are also at record levels with €177M listed on the report for 2026. The report also noted that the ‘Longford Strategy’, which refers to the council’s multiple strategic plans, “provides potential for €80+ million further investment in Longford.”

Expenditure for 2026 will include over €22M on roads, €18.3M on housing, €14M on development management, €10.3 on environment, €6.4M on recreation/amenities, €5.6M on miscellaneous services, and €2.6M on water services. During the meeting, a proposal to increase commercial rates to 7% was put to the members, who instead voted for a 4% rise.

Speaking to the Longford Leader, Director of Finance John McKeon, reflected on the budgetary success of the council since their 2015 budget of €38M. To now have €80M, Mr McKeon explained, likely happened because of 2 main reasons, the first being the ‘Longford Model’ which was a strategy developed back in 2019 and proved so successful, it has now been adopted by other local authorities nationwide.

Said Mr McKeon, “We were the first local authority in the country to go to the maximum 15% variation on the Local Property Tax. As a result, it allowed us to borrow for big capital projects.”

“There's also a combination of things to maximise our discretionary funding over the 5 year period of the current council. The Strategic Business Plan, or the Longford Strategy as it’s known, is a 5 year strategic business plan and again, we're the first council to have done that. Previous to this, every council went year-by-year. That has all enabled us to grow from €38M to €80M on our revenue budget over a decade.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme