Key Point

Local Authorities plan to spend €4.4 billion in 2017. This note accompanies the forthcoming update to the Local Authority Finances website with 2017 Budgets, and explains where the money will come from and what it will be spent on.

Local Authority Income

There are thirty one Local Authorities. They have an aggregate income of €4.4 billion for 2017. Table 1 shows both the nominal and percentage share of income attributable to different sources.

Table 1 – Local Authority Income in 2017

(Source: Local Authority Finances.com)

Commercial rates account for one-third of all income totalling €1.5 billion (34%), followed by Goods and Services €1.3 billion (30%), and Grants and Subsidies (from Central Government) €1.2 billion (26%). The Local Property Tax (LPT) provides €393 million or 9 per cent of total income.

Local Authority Expenditure

The thirty-one local authorities in Ireland plan to spend €4.4 billion in 2017. Table 2 displays the breakdown of this expenditure by service division.

Table 2 – Local Authority Expenditure in 2017

(Source: Local Authority Finances.com)

The largest share of spending in absolute and percentage terms will be housing. It will total €1.2 billion, or just over one-quarter of total expenditure (27%) this year. It is followed by roads (€845m) and environmental services (€683m).

The Cost of Homelessness

The administration of homeless services is expected to cost €161m in 2017 across the 31 Local Authorities. This equates to 3.7 per cent of total expenditure. As Dublin City Council is the lead statutory authority with responsibility for co-ordinating responses to homelessness in the four Dublin Local Authorities, spending on homelessness will be €123m or 14.2% of its 2017 Budget. The second highest share of spending on homelessness is found in Cork City at €6.2m (4.1% of Budget), followed by Waterford City & County at €3.9m (3.3%), and Galway City at €2.1m (2.8%).

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Notes:

¹  Goods and Services income includes rent from houses (€435m) and Irish Water (€299m).

² The category ‘Other’ accounts for any credit balance carried by a local authority and some monies linked to the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA).

³ Environmental Services include recycling centres, landfills, street cleaning and the maintenance of burial grounds.

⁴ This combines two service divisions of local government, namely; ‘Agriculture, Education, Health & Welfare’ and ‘Miscellaneous Services’.

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