Limerick councillors set to sign off on €857m budget

LIMERICK city and county councillors will meet tomorrow to agree the authority’s budget for 2021.

According to the book of estimates, presented to members at the end of last week, there will be a total of €857m spent over the next 12 months.

And in a boost for businesses, the commercial rate – a charge paid by traders based on the size of their premises – will remain the same, should members adopt the book as proposed following Friday’s meeting in the Limerick Racecourse.

Dr Pat Daly, the chief executive of Limerick City and County Council, who has prepared Budget 2021, said it aims to “maintain the existing services to a high standard” and ensure the local authority “fulfils its statutory and regulatory obligations.”

“The demand for services across Limerick continues to grow and his is matched by an increase in public expectation. During 2020, the council again had to react to unforeseen events such as the Covid-19 global pandemic which demonstrated the professionalism commitment and determination of staff to manage the impact of these events,” Dr Daly said.

While the various support measures rolled out by government during lockdown was expected to see the squeeze placed on public finances, in the case of Limerick City and County Council, next year’s projected budget will actually see spend going up by €31.8m.

Of the nine front-line service areas, two sectors will see a projected fall in spend.

Agriculture, education health and welfare spend is expected to drop from €1,380,672 to €1,349,894. And expenditure on recreation and amenity is projected to drop from €14.4m to €14.1m.

Spend on housing and building is up from €39.6m to €44.7m, while road transport spend rises from €44.2m to €49.1m.

Water services spend flows upstream, from €15.9m to €16.1m, and development management spend increases from €20.7m to €22.6m, according to Dr Daly’s estimates, which will need to be approved by councillors.

Environmental services spend rises from €33.3m to €34.9m, while miscellaneous services is up by €1m, from €13.7m to €14.7m.

Limerick Council’s budget is larger than other authorities, as it also houses the national service centre for the Housing Assistance Payment scheme in he Granary complex.

Spend for this makes up more than three-quarters of Budget 2021, rising from €641m to €659m.

Earlier this year, councillors agreed to increase the Local Property Tax by 15%, a move which has made €2.3m extra available to the local authority.

This, Dr Daly says, has meant the commercial rate will be able to remain the same going into 2021.

At present, the commercial charge is 0.2677 per rate of valuation.

Members will also note hundreds of millions of euro in capital projects stretching the length and breadth of Co Limerick, with projections of spend across the next three years here.

The budget meeting kicks off at 10am on Friday morning.