Key Point

Local Authorities plan to spend almost €4.8 billion in 2018. This note accompanies the update to the Local Authority Finances website with 2018 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 €4.79 billion for 2018. Table 1 shows both the nominal and percentage share of income attributable to different sources.

Table 1 – Local Authority Income in 2018

(Source: Local Authority Finances.com)

Commercial rates account for almost one-third of all income totalling €1.5 billion (31.5%), followed by Grants and Subsidies (from Central Government) €1.45 billion (30.3%), and Goods and Services €1.41 billion (29.5%). The Local Property Tax (LPT) will provide €395 million or 8.2 per cent of total income.

Local Authority Expenditure  

The thirty-one local authorities in Ireland plan to spend €4.79 billion in 2018. Table 2 displays the breakdown of this expenditure by service division.

Table 2 – Local Authority Expenditure in 2018

(Source: Local Authority Finances.com)

In 2018, the largest share of spending in both absolute and percentage terms will be housing. It amounts to €1.47 billion, or 30.6% of total expenditure this year. It is followed by roads (€913m) and environmental services (€654m).

Housing and Homelessness

Key points:

• Expenditure on housing will increase by 22 per cent or €260 million from €1.21 billion in 2017 to €1.47 billion in 2018 across the 31 Local Authorities
• Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) will amount to €423 million in 2018 – an increase of 86 per cent on 2017 (€228 million)⁶
• Spending on the administration of homeless services will also increase by almost a fifth (19%) or €30.6 million from €161 million to €191 million in 2018. This equates to 4 per cent of all local government expenditure
• Dublin City Council is the lead statutory authority with responsibility for co-ordinating responses to homelessness in the four Dublin Local Authorities. It will spend €146m or 16% of its 2018 Budget of €917 million on homelessness

Choose your local authority on Local Authority Finances.com and we’ll show you the 2018 budget breakdown, how it compares to the national average, and how it compares to other councils.

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Notes:

¹ Grants and Subsidies include ‘Housing and Building’ (€795.8 million) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) (€322.6 million).

² Goods and Services income includes rent from houses (€498 million), and Irish Water (€298 million).

³ The category ‘Other’ accounts for any credit balance carried by a local authority.

⁴ Environmental Services include recycling centres, landfills, street cleaning and the maintenance of burial grounds. The 2018 Budgets contain a spending allocation for ‘Climate Change and Flooding’.

⁵ This combines two service divisions of local government, namely; ‘Agriculture, Education, Health & Welfare’ and ‘Miscellaneous Services’.

⁶ 17,916 new HAP tenancies were established in 2017. Current Rent Supplement recipients who qualify for social housing support are being transferred from Rent Supplement to HAP on a phased basis.

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