Fingal councillors raise rents for tenants in social housing

Fingal County Council has agreed a budget for next year that’s 11.4 percent larger than this year’s.

The 2026 budget, approved by councillors at the meeting on Tuesday 18 November, comes to €433 million – an extra €44 million over 2025’s.

In the new budget, €160 million has been allocated to housing, and €85 million to recreation and amenities, according to a press release issued by the council following the meeting.

The council’s environmental services will get €59 million, while €47 million will go towards road transport and safety, it said.

Fingal’s budget has almost doubled over the last decade, Oliver Hunt, the council’s director of finance told councillors in the chamber during the 18 November meeting. 

“That is just a reflection of the significant size of the activity that we’ve undertaken and the growth that the council has undergone over the last number of years,” Hunt said.

The agreed budget was a slight decrease on what the council’s executive branch brought before councillors, with the draft originally coming to a total of €436 million.

But a proposal to increase differential rents for tenants in social housing from 12 percent of their income to 17 percent divided the chamber.

A coalition on the left wanted to delay the meeting to look at alternatives, arguing that any increase would squeeze already struggling households. 

Instead, an option of a rise of 14.5 percent was put to the room by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Aontú and independent councillors.

That compromise, which narrowly won out, saw a reduction of €2.7 million in the council’s planned budget, collecting slightly less than first mooted from the low-income households in public housing, while lowering the council’s intended spend on its library services, parks, community facilities, and road maintenance works.

Spending

The largest share of the council’s expenditure for next year is expected to be on housing, which has been allocated €159.8 million.

That is an additional €24 million on last year, Paul Carroll, Fingal’s director of housing, told the council last Tuesday.

This is going to include an extra €15.8 million being spent on the delivery of housing through approved housing bodies, slides shown to councillors say.

Also, €17.3 million has been allocated to housing maintenance, which is €1.7 million more than last year.

That’s due to the increased housing stock, as well as higher construction costs and inflation, Carroll said. “Over 50 percent of our stock is over 25 years of age, so obviously that’s a significant cost associated with maintaining stock of that age.”

The council’s operations department is getting an extra €3.5 million over what it got last year, spread across road maintenance, public lighting, playgrounds, recycling centres, public conveniences and burial grounds.

Salaries for 40 additional staff need to be funded, said Mary T. Daly, director of Operations. “It’s desperately required in all areas due to the number of estates that were taken in charge.”

After developers build new housing estates, the council generally takes in charge public spaces such as roads, and parks, and maintains those going forward.

Fingal took in charge 26 new estates this year, which need to be maintained, with another 25 to come next year, Daly said.

Under capital projects, the budget has also injected an additional €600,000 into delivery of a long-sought municipal swimming pool in Balbriggan, slides from the meeting show.

Subject to approval of a Part 8 planning application – meaning the council will apply to itself for permission – the tender for its construction will be issued in the third quarter of next year, said David Storey, Fingal’s director of Environment Climate Action, Active Travel and Sports.

Also, €50,000 has been included in the budget to support a new subsidised primary school swimming programme, he said. “Final details are currently being worked out with Swim Ireland.”

Income

The council expects commercial rates to account for 40 percent of its total income in 2026. These are the council’s “primary source of funding”, the draft budget says.

This year, it is increasing the “annual rateable valuation” by 4 percent, meaning businesses will have to pay that bit more on the value of their premises.

For nearly three-quarters of all businesses paying the tax that is going to cost less than €400 for the year, a slide shown to councillors at the meeting said.

Four percent was significantly below the cumulative rate of inflation since 2020, which is in excess of 20 percent, said Hunt, the council director of finance.

There hasn’t really been an increase in these rates in 15 years, he said. “And in the last decade, there was two rate decreases in 2011 and 12.”

The council’s second biggest source of funding, grants from the central government, is expected to account for 36 percent of its income in 2026, or about €135 million, according to its draft budget.

From rents, the council got €29.5 million in 2025, and proposed increasing that to  €41 million in 2026, in the draft budget.

Tenants in council-owned housing pay a “differential rent” based largely on a percentage of their income, with that current rate sat at 12 percent.

That rate has been in place since 2013, said Carroll. “In the context of all those increasing demands on our revenue, we see a need to bring that up to 17 percent.”

Calls for a deferment

But the proposal to set the new differential rent at 17 percent of a council tenant’s income split the chamber down the middle.

It was the problem at the centre of the budget, said Labour Councillor John Walsh. “If we vote through the budget in its current form, then we are explicitly supporting a very major increase in housing rents.”

Walsh tabled a motion to adjourn the meeting until 28 November.

The motion was co-signed by his Labour colleagues, as well as councillors from Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Green Party, Solidarity and Independents 4 Change.

They suggested this delay so that councillors could weigh up alternatives, which excluded the increase to social housing rents for next year, the motion said.

It would be irresponsible to re-write the budget on the floor of the chamber, he said. This isn’t the kind of thing councillors should be doing “when the welfare of the vast majority of council housing tenants is at stake”.

Putting up the rent for tenants would cripple families already struggling with energy poverty, the cost-of-living crisis and increased transport costs, said Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly.

Outstanding rent arrears, which have decreased by €1.2 million since January, are currently at €8.8 million, she said. “This would cover this year’s maintenance plans, and allow us to come up with a fairer, well-thought out maintenance plan going forward.”

An adjournment would allow councillors to discuss the budget in a more measured way, she said.

The motion was defeated by 21 votes to 18.

A compromise

An alternative rate of 14.5 percent was put forward by independent Councillor Jimmy Guerin in a motion co-signed by Aontú councillors Gerard Sheehan and Ellen Troy, as well as Darragh Butler of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s Aoibhinn Tormey.

Their motion suggested lowering the proposed rate of expenditure on community facilities, and the maintenance of local authority housing units, heritage facilities and library services by more than €500,000 each.

It also proposed reductions to planned spending on public lighting, parks, pitches and open spaces, as well as the maintenance of traffic, regional road bridges, burial grounds and local roads, with this, in total, knocking €2.7 million off the draft budget of €436 million

A differential rent of 17 percent of one’s income was excessive, said Guerin. “We have come up with what we believe is a very fair proposal.”

Fingal would still have a lower differential rate than those in other local authorities – like Dublin City Council which just raised theirs from 15 to 18 percent – Guerin said. “And instead of the 40 percent increase that was being sought by the executive, we’re now proposing a 20 percent.”

Labour Councillor Brian McDonagh said he would be reluctant to support the motion’s proposed reductions to maintenance works. “This is the, y’know, it’s kind of the back of an envelope stuff I think that we were looking to avoid.”

The motion was wrong to target community infrastructure and roads, Independents 4 Change Councillor Dean Mulligan said. “We have houses being built in areas we can’t connect to.”

Councillor Butler said he didn’t like putting his name to this new motion. “But, there’s no secret ATM machine outside there that can just pull money from, and keep pulling money from.”

National Party Councillor Patrick Quinlan said it was funny that when the amendments were being discussed, councillors proposing this motion approached him to get his support. “The regime tried to approach me and broach me and win the air.”

Guerin had already completed the negotiations to get the necessary number of votes before anyone had spoken to Quinlan, Guerin said. “So I couldn’t have cared jackshit where his vote went.”

The motion was approved by 21 votes to 18.