LPT boost for Cavan

Cavan County Council is set to receive an increase of over €2.3M in its Local Property Tax funding in 2014, following a review of how the money is allocated. Monaghan, meanwhile, will get an additional €1.5M.

Local Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith confirmed the figures last week following an announcement from the Minister for Local Government, Darragh O'Brien.

Every local authority receives a minimum or ’baseline’ amount of funding from the LPT Fund, supplemented by funding from the exchequer where a local authority’s LPT income is lower than its baseline in order to fund the delivery of a broad rang of services.

Deputy Smith said that Fianna Fáil is aware of the growing challenges faced by local authorities due to growing cost of providing services and infrastructure.

"As well as assisting local authorities to meet the costs of providing essential services, ensuring a minimum increase in baseline funding to the local authority enables a level of flexibility and discretion for the authority to address local resource demands arising from the delivery of priority Government initiatives," he said.

All 31 local authorities will see their baseline funding increase by a minimum of €1.5m in 2024, following the recommendations of a working group.

It recommended that baseline funding should be distributed in line with factors including population, deprivation levels and local authority income raising capacity.