County Council raked in €120m in rates during 2017

REPORT SHOWS THAT RATES ACCOUNT FOR 41% OF COUNCIL’S ANNUAL INCOME

THE continuing improvement in the overall economy has been cited as one of the key reasons behind the increase in the amounts of rates collected by Cork County Council last year.

Figures contained in a report issued this week by the Council’s head of finance, Lorraine Lynch, revealed that the authority collected €120.8 million in rates during 2017 – an increase of €3.4 million on the previous year.

Overall, the amount of rates collected each consecutive year has risen steadily since 2010, when the authority raked in €90.1 million.

The only blip was in 2016, when the amount collected fell to €117.4 million, a €2.5million drop from 2015.

In her report Ms Lynch said that the income from rates accounted for 41 per cent of the Council’s total revenue income in 2017 and was “therefore the most important source of the Council’s own funding”.

She described the collection performance for 2017 of 89.6 per cent compared to 88 per cent for 2016 as “very satisfactory”, adding that the overall trend of compliance “continues to be positive”, due to a number of contributing factors.

“Continued improvement in the overall economic environment, together with improved financial circumstances, resulted in more engagement by many ratepayers in addressing both current and historic liabilities and greater capacity to meet payment commitments,” wrote Ms Lynch.

“The trend of increasing levels of property transfers across sectors was sustained and resulted in the discharge of rate liability and resolved, in some cases, previous problematic accounts.”

Ms Lynch said that while the authority was obliged to maximise its collection of local commercial property tax to ensure funding was in place to fund services, the authority was conscious of the “challenging circumstances in which some businesses find themselves”.

To that end, she said that Council staff were working closely with around 14,200 ratepayers and were engaging on a case-by-case basis to agree payment plans.

However, she said that while the authority was trying to facilitate businesses in rates arrears, for example through flexible repayment agreements, it was left with no option but to take legal action in certain cases.

The report showed that 66 cases where summons were issued were resolved without having to go to court and 110 judgements were obtained through the courts.

Ms Lynch said the continued improved collection performance in 2017 was reflected by the closing arrears figure of €14.9 million, a reduction on the opening balance of €17.1 million.

She said that while every effort would be made to recover outstanding arrears during 2018, the Council had made a bad debt provision of €9 million, which Ms Lynch said primarily catered for business closures, liquidations, receiverships, extended payment plans and cases subject to legal proceedings.