Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors have passed a regressive Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown budget that heaps the burden onto those least able to afford it.
The budget increases council rents, hikes parking charges and raises commercial rates, piling pressure on struggling families and small businesses already hit by the cost-of-living crisis.
For commuters using park-and-ride at places like Salthill DART and Cherrywood Luas, these parking hikes will mean hundreds of euro extra every year just to get to work. Higher parking charges will drive people away from our town centres, gutting footfall for local shops, cafés and small independent businesses.
People Before Profit Cllr Dave O’Keeffe said:
“This is a budget that asks tenants, commuters and small businesses to pay more, while the most profitable players in the local economy are protected. It makes it harder to keep a roof over your head, harder to get to work, and harder to keep a small business open on our main streets.”
Cllr O’Keeffe proposed an alternative that was rejected by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael:
- A fair rates system where struggling businesses would be shielded from increases through a refund based on their profits,
- While only the most profitable businesses would be asked to pay a little bit extra.
People Before Profit also proposed a tiny €1.50 “polluter pays” charge per cruise passenger using Dún Laoghaire Harbour, with the income earmarked to help retrofit council homes and offset some of the pollution caused by those ships. This, too, was voted down by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Cllr O’Keeffe linked the local decision to a wider national pattern:
“The decision to make councils ‘self-fund’ is a political decision by successive governments. They’ve stripped away central funding and forced councils to plug the gap through council rents, parking charges, local property tax and commercial rates.
“At the same time, governments have refused to implement a fairer rates system – one based on a business’s ability to pay, not just the size of its floor space. We’re left with a system that punishes ordinary shops and workers instead of asking those with the deepest pockets and the biggest polluters to contribute their fair share.”