Limerick City and County Council has passed the budget for 2019, which will see an increase in spending in day-to-day services directly to communities across the city and county, with specific attention for housing, roads and town and village renewal.
Councillors voted 19 to 18 to adopt the budget today (Thursday 15 November 2018), marking the last budget before the local elections take place in May 2019.
A revenue budget of €689.58 million has been adopted by Limerick City and County Council. 170.8 million of this is for the core day-to-day running of services in Limerick marking an increase of €12.25 million on last year. The balance is to run the HAP Shared Service Centre, which Limerick runs for the entire country.
The budget includes the same level of Local Property Tax compared to 2018 and a 1.9% increase in the Commercial Rate.
Budget 2019 will see an additional €6 million for Housing. This includes an extra:
- €1.1 million for a planned roll-out of Maintenance for our social housing stock
- €200,000 for Tenancy Enforcement – supporting our tenants in building sustainable communities
- €1 million to support citizens in emergency accommodation
In total throughout 2019, €3.08 million will be spent on grants for Mobility Aid, Housing Adaptation and Housing Aid for Older People highlighting the importance Limerick City and County Council places on caring and supporting for some of our most vulnerable citizens across Limerick
A total of €28.5 million will be spent on Local and Regional roads throughout Limerick in 2019, along with €2.87 million on public lighting, designed to make Limerick safer. An additional €200,000 is being provided to fix footpaths.
€1.1 million is being pumped into the Urban and Village Renewal scheme which is a catalyst for the economic development and re-awakening of towns and villages across Limerick.
Additional Funding is also being provided for other front line services including:
- Fire Service
- Street Cleaning and Litter Management
- School Meal Fund
- Library Book Fund
- Tourism Development and Promotion
- Festival Development
- Maintenance of Parks, Pitches and Open Spaces
Limerick City and County Council is retaining the Small and Medium Business Support Scheme for 2019.
All businesses who have a Qualifying Annual Rate Warrant of less than or equal to €25,000 will be eligible for a 9% support payment, subject to a maximum of €1,000.
A total of 94% of all rateable properties in Limerick will be eligible to apply for this Support Scheme.
The Tourism Support Scheme also remains in place with no changes.
On the capital side, a total of €629.8 million is budgeted for over the next three years. Among the important projects are social housing, the new Limerick to Foynes Road, including the Adare Bypass, M20 Limerick to Cork Motorway and Limerick Northern Distributor Road.
Funding is also being provided to progress the Limerick 2030 developments at the Opera Site, Cleeve’s, Innovate Limerick and Mungret, along with Lough Gur, Kantoher, Newcastle West and Digital Strategy infrastructure projects.
Speaking at the budget meeting Conn Murray, Chief Executive of Limerick City and County Council said: “The leadership, vision and decision-making shown by the elected members in the past five years in supporting initiatives such as the Limerick Regeneration Framework Implementation Plan, Limerick 2030 project plans, the creation of Innovate Limerick, the Rural Development Programme has seen Limerick become the fastest growing economy in Ireland and the Irish urban success story of the last decade and allow us to increase our budget next year.
“Limerick City and County Council’s revenue budget and capital programme provide services and investment which aim to improve the city and county as a place in which to live, work and invest.
"In addition, the Council’s spending brings important stimulus impacts, which are a boom to short-term economic activity. The stimulus impact of Budget 2019 has been estimated in order to understand the wider economic footprint of Council activities. In 2019 the Council is projected to spend €690 million in revenue expenditure of which €518.78m relates to the HAP Shared Service Centre and €170.8m relating to our core local authority services. The €170.8m will fund the day to-day operations of the Council as well as contribute to the advancement of the County’s Capital Programme.”