Vote to increase LPT adjustment factor to 15%

Cork City Council has voted to raise the Local Adjustment Factor (LAF) of Local Property Tax by 3% from 12% to 15%.

The decision was made at a special meeting of Cork City Council held on Tuesday 29 September.

Councillors voted 20 votes in favour and seven against to raise the LAF and voted 18 in favour and nine against to set the rate at 15% for three years. Homeowners will see a rise in LPT as a result.

The increase is expected to bring in an extra €766,000 in revenue for the council. Chief Executive of Cork City Council Valerie O’Sullivan said that this amount will not be enough to fund members’ requests for 2027, which amount to €1.1 million.

She said that an increase of 5% would have met the requests of members but without a surplus for other spending, while the requested increase of 8% would have brought in €2.04 million.

The council received no public submissions on foot of the public notice of the meeting.However, the decision did face opposition, with central government being called on to provide more in funding to make up shortfalls in the council’s budget.

Workers’ Party Cllr Jerrica Struthers said: “We’re asking workers to pay more, just to receive less. Our residents are not a bottomless ATM for our broken funding system. Instead of squeezing struggling families, this council should be demanding our fair share from central government,” she said.

Independent councillor Paudie Dineen, who supported the increase to 15%, also said that the money which the council is seeking via LPT should be provided by central government. “It’s not good enough anymore in a country that is awash with money, where we apparently have €5 billion in surplus and we’re throwing hundreds of millions into overseas aid and everything else. The Government need to step in here,” he said.

Cllr Joe Lynch (Sinn Féin) also highlighted the ongoing boundary compensation paid to Cork County Council by Cork City Council, which amounts to around €15m per year. He said that the ongoing expenditure was “ludicrous”.

Under the Finance (Local Property Tax and Other Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2025, a local authority may vote to vary the basic rate of the LPT by a maximum of plus 25% or minus 15% of the basic rate. LPT is paid by all homeowners in the city council area. Social housing tenants do not pay LPT, the cost is covered by Cork City Council.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.