FF/Green council pact undermined by failure to reach consensus on property tax – Rock

The agreement signed up to by Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats and the Green Party on Dublin City Council is completely undermined by the failure of the parties to reach a consensus on how to approach property tax, a Fine Gael TD has said.

Dublin North West TD, Noel Rock, said: “The ‘Dublin Agreement’ signed up to by Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats and the Green Party to assume control of the council runs to ten pages but nowhere is there a simple indication of how much any of the proposed measures will cost.

“There are dozens of commitments in the agreement that would require substantial funding.

“However, despite this, the stand-out aspect of the deal is that the parties have agreed that each will be able to decide their own position on varying Local Property Tax thereby making their commitments redundant.

“Local councillors have the ability to raise or decrease the rate of LPT by 15pc. This is one of the most important decisions that the city council makes every year. It has obvious implications for people’s back pocket and also on the city council’s capacity to provide services.

“The fact that the parties left this an open question in the agreement means they do not take the commitments made in their agreement very seriously at all.

“It is meaningless to make a wish-list of spending increases without deciding a common position on one of the main income streams the council relies on to fund local services.

“A number of councillors elected to Dublin City Council to represent the parties have already been selected as General Election candidates for their parties.

“Is it a case that they are already eyeing an election to the Dáil where they will not be held accountable for the something-for-everyone-in-the-audience commitments made in the Dublin Agreement?

“The parties have agreed to set-up a monitoring committee which will monitor the progress of the agreement and the promises made in it. Will the outcome of these monthly meetings be made public so that Dubliners can make up their own mind on its success?”