€3.5 million boost for Offaly County Council in 2024

Offaly County Council is to receive a €3.5 million boost to its coffers for 2024, following the announcement of a €75.4m increase in Local Property Tax (LPT) baseline funding to Local Authorities.

The funding boost, which follows a review into the way in which LPT is allocated, will see Offaly's baseline LPT funding increase by a whopping 46.9% from €7,656,288 this year to €11,252,214 next year.

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.

The baseline funding is essential and recognises the essential role played by local authorities, not only in delivering a broad range of services day-to-day, but also in successfully leading the local response to emergency situations; such as sector’s establishment of Community Call during Covid-19, and more recently the community response to support the Ukrainian crisis.

In announcing the funding, Housing Minister, Darragh O' Brien, said that local authorities, including Offaly County Council, play “an integral role in the delivery of services to our citizens” but added that he is aware of the “growing challenges” faced by local authorites due to an increase in demand for services and the growing cost of providing them.

“Since 2020 I have been committed to a review of the baseline funding of local authorities and I established a working group earlier this year to examine the issue. I am pleased to announce that today’s funding has been guided by the review that has taken place and the recommendations of the working group” he said.

The working group recommended that baseline funding should be distributed in line with: population area; deprivation levels; local authority income raising capacity and national policy priorities.

The review identified that the baseline funding of some local authorities needed adjustment according to the criteria recommended by the working group. Therefore some authorities will see a greater increase in funding than others.

However, all 31 local authorities will see their baseline funding increase by a minimum of €1.5m in 2024.

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