Council earmarks almost €60m for Dublin homeless services in 2015

A budget of more than €771 million to run Dublin city in 2015 has been agreed by Dublin city councillors by 35 votes to 27.

Sinn Féin voted in favour of the council’s annual budget for the first time following amendments the party agreed with Labour, the Green Party and some Independent councillors .

Sinn Féin, the largest party on the council with 16 seats, last June entered into an agreement to share power on the council with Labour, which has eight seats, and the Greens, with three, as well as most of the 12 Independent councillors. The agreement gives Sinn Féin the role of mayor for two terms, including during the Rising centenary, with the Independents also holding it twice and Labour once.

The deal also puts the onus on those parties to pass the city’s budget. If councillors failed to agree a budget, the council could be abolished and a commissioner appointed by the Minister for the Environment to run the city until the next local elections, which would mean there would be no mayor in 2016.

The budget prepared by the council’s finance department and recommended by chief executive Owen Keegan, set out a cut of 1 per cent in commercial rates.

The amendments agreed by the coalition group restrict the rate cut for businesses to 0.5 per cent, which would generate an additional €1.7 million to run the city. The group proposes to use this money to fund a range of services including street cleaning, as well as the appointment of a cycling officer and to increase funding to prepare for 1916 commemorative events.

They have also agreed that a €5 million contingency fund would, if not otherwise required, be put into housing and homeless services with a priority on returning “voids” - vacant council housing stock - to use.

Almost €60 million has been earmarked for homeless services next year, separate to the €5 million contingency money, which is in excess of €7 million more than was spent on homelessness in Dublin this year.

The budget includes €53 million the council expects to draw from its share of the property tax paid by Dublin homeowners.

Fine Gael did not put forward any amendment to the budget as the party wanted the full 1 per cent reduction in commercial rates. Paddy McCartan (FG) said it was “mealy mouthed” to restrict the rates cut to 0.5 per cent when property tax for homeowners had been cut by 15 per cent.

Fianna Fáil wanted no reduction in commercial rates but said the party would be prosing legislation in the Dáil to ensure rates were more fairly applied.

The People Before Profit Alliance had proposed the budget vote be postponed because of a lack of clarity from Government on how much funding it would allocate to the council next year.

Michael O’Brien of the Anti Austerity Alliance said the budget was not acceptable because €46.8 million in grants and loan supports was being replaced by the property tax.