Donegal has highest shortfall in meeting Local Property Tax baseline for 2025   

Donegal had highest shortfall in meeting its Local Property Tax baseline, it was annunced today.  

The provisional 2025 Local Property Tax (LPT) allocation for Donegal is just €9,963,939, but to meet a baseline requirement of €26,619,850, the LPT tax shortfall is to be supplemented by nearly €17.286m from Exchequer funding - the highest allocation in the State.  

Every local authority receives a minimum (’baseline’) amount of funding from the Local Property Tax, supplemented by funding from the exchequer where a local authority’s LPT income is lower than its baseline.

Equalisation is the process that ensures that all LPT allocations are funded up to this baseline. 

The baseline is made up of a combination of LPT yield and, where necessary, funding from the Exchequer, as is the case with Donegal. 

As well as assisting local authorities to meet the costs of providing essential services, LPT allocations enable a level of flexibility and discretion for each authority to address local resource demands. 

For 2025, nationally, the estimated LPT yield of €552m will be supplemented by €144m equalisation support from the Exchequer.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, said baseline funding recognises the essential role played by local authorities in delivering a broad range of services day-to-day.   

Minister O’Brien TD, said:

“Local Authorities play a vital role in the delivery of services to our citizens. Following the conclusion of a working group set up to conduct a review of baseline funding, this Government increased the LPT baseline by more than €75m in 2024.   

“These changes are being carried over to 2025, and should go some way to easing the pressures on the sector. Following the recent local elections, new councils now have important decisions to make in the coming months regarding the level of local property tax in their areas, all of which will effect expenditure on local services.”

The Minister of  State for Local Government and Planning, Alan Dillon TD, also  welcomed the announcement. Minister Dillon said:

“I am pleased that the significant increases in LPT allocations for 2024, will continue into 2025 and know they will assist the sector in the key role it fulfils in delivering for local communities.”