A BANTRY councillor said he’d rather book a flight to Spain and never come back than face ratepayers in West Cork if a 3% rate hike was approved.

Cork county councillors rejected a proposed rates increase at their budget meeting on Monday – with 15 tweaks suggested and approved.

Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) declared an interest saying he, as a publican, knows the pressure people are under from high energy costs, an increase in the minimum wage, and the pension auto-enrolment scheme.

Fine Gael’s Cllr Marie O’Sullivan spelled it out in pounds, shillings and pence saying she, as a café owner in Kinsale, has an outlay of €46,260 before she earns a penny.

Rent, she said, is €24,000; electricity is €11,400; water charges €1,800; refuse collection €2,160; insurance €3,000 and rates €3,900.

Cllr Collins noted that inflation has increased by 24% over the last 10 years. He said there has been a €4 increase in the minimum wage over the last five years, but ‘the price of a pint has only gone up €1 in that time’.

Council CEO Mora Murrell, and head of finance Loraine Lynch, had set out a €526m budget that sought a 3% increase in rates, which they said would allow the development of critical services.

Both itemised where the funds were to be spent, including a new housing programme for the county; additional funds for the taking in charge of estates; greater investment in roads; more land and staff for the maintenance of burial ground; a footpath programme for the county; and funding so the local authority could provide 25% matching finance for projects approved under the rural development fund; as well as 10% matching finance for coastal works.

‘We are dealing with the inflationary costs like every other business across the country,’ said the CEO, who also pointed out that additional funding was earmarked for traffic safety, cyber security, and acquiring land for housing, as well as development land and industrial sites to facilitate economic growth.

Ms Murrell acknowledged that councillors had agreed to increase the local property tax (LPT) from 10% to 15% in July, which has generated an additional €1.9m annually. This has been ring fenced for urban regeneration work and capital projects in the eight municipal districts in Cork County.

The draft budget showed expenditure for 2026 at €526m, which is offset by €38.7m in LPT; rates at 26% or €142.7m; as well as €348.7m from the council’s income divisions. This figure includes government grants and subsidies amounting to 46% of the overall budget, as well as goods and services provided by the council at 22%.

Loraine Lynch said the proposed increase is ‘behind the rate of inflation’ which is currently running at 2.7% and means the local authority will need an extra €8.9m ‘just to stand still’.

She said the budget has a strong focus on housing, with €2.9 million proposed for day-to-day repairs, energy efficiencies, and bringing housing stock back into use.

The actual cost of a 3% increase in the rate would, she added, cost €1.40 per week for 66% of business owners who have a rate bill lower than €3,000.

Loraine Lynch showed how a 3% increase in rates would allow for an increase in spending of €7,864,600 across 15 different categories.

Only one member, Cllr Ian Doyle (FF), another small business owner, was of the opinion: ‘The rates are the least of the problems facing small businesses.’

Cllr Doyle described the budget as proposed as being ‘forward and comprehensive’ because it showed an increase of €7.8m at a time when the local authority has ‘so many projects that are shovel ready’ and just waiting on the resources to fund them.

A proposal by Cllr Gearoid Murphy (FF) reducing increases across 15 categories, which would allow the budget to be passed without hiking rates, was adopted by a majority vote with 34 in favour and 17, most of whom were Fine Gael, voting against.

Citing flooding in Bantry as a reason rates could not be increased Cllr Danny Collins said an independent report in 2021 established that Cork County Council was not operating on a level playing field. For the largest county in the country, he said, expenditure came up short across all departments and income streams.

He said the Taoiseach and all of the region’s Oireachtas members should be brought into the council chamber to explain what they are doing to secure the funding a county the size of Cork deserves.