Limerick Council plans €934m in spend during 2024

LIMERICK City and County Council plans to spend €943m locally in 2024, under plans signed off this Friday.

Adopted each November, the council budget is in place to fund front-line local services such as the maintenance of roads, the repair of street lights, the promotion of businesses, street-cleaning and litter collection among other things.

And this year, members have approved an increase in spend of €37m year-on-year.

Parking charges will remain the same, as will cemetery charges.

Rents paid by local authority tenants will be frozen, as will charges to use the council-owned recycling centres.

There are also no increases planned for planning fees and fire charges.

Report highlights challenges facing Diocese of Limerick

There is a boost for local business owners after councillors agreed a freeze to the commercial rate.

The charge, levied on business owners based on the size of their premises, will remain the same going into 2024.

Extra resources for maintenance, boiler servicing and homelessness provision were signed off at the annual local authority budget meeting in County Hall at Dooradoyle this Friday.

There's more money in the pot for local and regional roads, with national roads and motorways being the responsibility of government.

Budget 2024 also includes a special focus on Rathkeale town.

While in the area of street-cleaning, funding has been approved for mini street-sweepers in rural areas.

In the city centre, a rapid-response maintenance team is being set up to respond immediately to incidents of concern.

On this team, there will be an engineer and up to four general operatives.

There's more money in the budget for grass cutting.

Although €943m is in the budget for expenditure, the majority of this - almost three quarters - is for the Housing Assistance Payments shared services centre.

Limerick runs this on behalf of the 31 local authorities across the State.

It means in real terms, the remaining €249m has been allocated to day-to-day services for Limerick citizens.

Housing grants are increased, to help those with a disability and older people.

With the maiden election for the Directly Elected Mayor due on the same day councillors seek re-election in June 2024, money has been set aside in the budget to assist whoever that candidate is in the implementation of their programme.

Mayor Gerald Mitchell said: "The elected members have once more agreed a budget which, for the people of Limerick will see existing services protected, allowances for expansion of amenities and will no doubt strengthen the city and county’s strong foundations for future growth."

Council boss, Dr Pat Daly added: "The Annual Budget for 2024 has been prepared in the context of no commercial rate increase and maintaining the service provision at the same levels as 2023 while also enhancing resources in key priority areas identified through engagement with Councillors. Key priority areas will bring focus on local service improvement with the aim to stimulate a positive economic boost."