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Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council agrees on €211 million budget

Elected Members for Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have voted to adopt Budget 2021 which provides for over €211 million in expenditure on critical service provision, an increase of almost €19 million on 2020.

The annual revenue Budget provides funding for a very broad range of services from road, cycle lane and foot path maintenance, energy efficient streetlighting, enhancing parklands, sports and community facilities, developing biodiversity and heritage initiatives as well as providing grants for local businesses.

The budget also provides for the maintenance and repair of the Council’s assets including its houses, corporate buildings, parks and Dún Laoghaire Harbour.

“The Council provides over 700 different services to the residents, businesses and visitors in our county,” the council said. “In preparing the dlr Annual Budget, we must consider, hand in hand with our statutory obligations, our delivery of the Councils corporate objectives and balance the varied needs of everyone in our area. This is an in-depth process, involving many months of consideration due to the amount of services areas that the Council are involved in.

“The emergence of Covid-19 earlier this year had an immediate and very detrimental impact on the Councils finances with a significant reduction in several income streams, together with an increase in Covid-19 related expenditure.

The Council is obliged to adopt a balanced budget each year. If the rate of Local Property Tax was to remain unchanged from previous years it would have been necessary to implement a wide range of significant cuts to services in 2021, as a direct result of Covid-19.

The Council met in September to consider whether to vary the basic rate of Local Property Tax. In previous years it was reduced by 15%. As there was no decision to vary the basic rate for 2021 it reverted to the basic rate by default. As a result of the Local Property Tax reverting to the basic rate €7.8m of additional income will be available to the Council in 2021.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Una Power said: “This budget allows the Council to maintain and expand on its services to the citizens in every part of our county. It will protect the service level we have and allows for the development of innovative methods of delivering on our goals.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Una Power

“The continued improvement of liveable space in our in towns, villages, parks and seashore area, grants to help local business to adapt and thrive, community development, further development of sustainable transport solutions will be of benefit to people living and working here, while local climate action initiatives and biodiversity enhancement will be of benefit to our environment in general.”

See original article on: https://dublinpeople.com/news/southside/articles/2020/11/25/dun-laoghaire-rathdown-county-council-agrees-on-e211-million-budget/.

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