Cork County councillors failed to agree a budget during a marathon meeting in County Hall yesterday that lasted over five hours, with the council now facing dissolution if an agreement can’t be reached in the next two weeks.

The news comes against the backdrop of seven of eight municipal districts rejecting their 2027 budget at a local level.

CEO Moira Murrell proposed a budget of €538m, a €12m increase on last year’s budget.  However, it called for an 8% rise in commercial rates which councillors would not accept. A counterproposal was tabled by Fianna Fáil, which would have seen a 7.5% increase on rates and an increase in the waiver threshold from €7,000 to €8,000 to help small to medium businesses.

Councillors in favour of the amendment explained that, if passed, this rates increase would be the only change until 2029 because of the rates re-evaluation by the National Valuation Office. They said other local authorities had raised rates in previous years and looked set to do so again, mentioning Cork City Council as an example.

This proposal was put to the councillors but was rejected on a vote of 30 to 24, with Fine Gael, Social Democrats, Independent Ireland, Labour, Sinn Féin and Aontú councillors voting against. No counterproposal was presented.

As a local business owner, Cllr John Michael Foley (FG) said he couldn’t support a rate increase and called on the council to look for further efficiencies in expenditure before putting the charge on local businesses. Cllr Marie O’Sullivan (FG) agreed and, as a business owner also, felt the proposed budget didn’t account for the uncertainty local businesses were facing.

Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind Ire) said that “anyone with their ear to the ground knows that businesses are struggling” and pointed to the announcement last week that a coffeeshop in Clonakilty was forced to close as yet another local example.

After an adjournment for the executive to discuss the legal process incurred by a budget not being accepted, councillors were informed that if an agreement was not reached within two weeks, Cork County Council would be dissolved.

Some councillors called for the meeting to continue late into the evening until a resolution could be found, with Cork County Mayor Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) recalling a budget meeting over a decade ago where pizzas were ordered to the chamber as the meeting ran close to midnight.

It was agreed to reconvene on Wednesday November 11 after later dates were ruled out due to clashes with council delegation, with a counterproposal expected from Fine Gael.