Councillors vote to reduce Local Property Tax by five per cent
Councillors voted to reduce the county’s Local Property Tax (LPT) for 2026 by five per cent at last night’s monthly meeting of Fingal County Council. The Local Property Tax had been reduced by 7.5% for the past three years so this decision will give the council an extra €1.25m in discretionary spending.
Each year councillors have the power to vary Local Property Tax by a maximum of plus or minus 15% of the basic rate.
This is the ninth successive year, since 2017, that Councillors have voted not to apply the full 15% reduction and the Council will ringfence the €5m generated by this decision for spending on a range of services in areas such as housing, parks, open spaces, operations, community and libraries.
The 5% reduction was passed by 17 votes to 16 after councillors had spoken on motions ranging from a zero per cent reduction out to a 15 per cent lowering of the rate.
The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, said: “Our overall objective for the Council’s 2026 budget is sustaining quality services to match the fast pace of growth in the County and to continue to assist in the funding for the delivery of the required capital investment in the County. The decision by councillors to reduce the reduction from the baseline by two-and-a-half percent to five per cent is extremely welcome and will be an important building block in our ability to come back to Council later in the year with a budget proposal that meets our primary objective.”
Under the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2025 a revaluation of all residential property will be carried out later this year while valuation bands will be widened by 20%. The Office of the Revenue Commissioners, who collect the Local Property Tax, estimate that 96% of properties across Ireland will remain within the same band following the changes.
The change in the LPT reduction from -7.5% to -5% will mean householders in Fingal seeing an increase in their Local Property Tax ranging from five cent per week for those in the lowest band to 34 cent per week for those whose houses are valued between €735,000 and €840,000. The most common valuation band in Fingal is Band C (€315,000 to €420,000), with 25% of houses in this band. They will see an increase of 16 cent per week following the change in the LPT variation.
The Council’s Management Team is currently working with the Corporate Policy Group and the various political parties to agree the 2026-2028 Capital Plan and the 2026 Budget which will be brought before Council in October and November respectively for approval.