Sinn Féin has called for local authorities to be given tax raising powers

[Andrew49]

Sinn Féin has called for local authorities to be given tax raising powers as part of its local election manifesto. Councillor Dáithi Doolan said without revenue raising powers, local government reform such as the introduction of a directly elected Mayor for Dublin was simply 'window dressing'.
RTE News

Giving power back to local communities would stop people having to contact their TD about potholes and broken windows and the like. Of course this would give more time to TDs! God knows what THEY'D get up to then! Fair play to Sinn Féin for highlighting the fact that local elections are little more than beauty contests.

[Duth Ealla]

Sinn Féin has called for local authorities to be given tax raising powers as part of its local election manifesto. Councillor Dáithi Doolan said without revenue raising powers, local government reform such as the introduction of a directly elected Mayor for Dublin was simply 'window dressing'.
RTE News

Giving power back to local communities would stop people having to contact their TD about potholes and broken windows and the like. Of course this would give more time to TDs! God knows what THEY'D get up to then! Fair play to Sinn Féin for highlighting the fact that local elections are little more than beauty contests.

Class idea actually. Danger os misrepresenatation as a call for more taxes but this is similar to what the Scottish are doing if i recall correctly.

[Andrew49]

And it would give locals back the power that was taken from them. It seems to me that local councils have steadily lost control to unelected quangos or to remote administrators with little or no knowledge of local conditions.

[lostexpectation]

He said two possible methods were a 'bed tax' on hotel rooms and the ring-fencing of a certain proportion of VAT for local authorities.

is that it?

[Duth Ealla]

is that it?

Please contribute your wisdom .

I think the reference was to possible sources.

For arguments sake can you think of any further sources.

[jtd]

Would this mean a two tiered system of local authorities? Those who gain a lot of revenue due to a high density of businesses and population and those who don't have as much to tax. Admittedly the expenditure level would be different, but surely it would mean some level of inequality?

[goosebump]

It all sounds great, but in reality, most of our Local Authorities are too small to justify the overhead involved in collecting Local Taxes from things like bed nights.

Its either Domestic Rates or nothing.

[Duth Ealla]

Would this mean a two tiered system of local authorities? Those who gain a lot of revenue due to a high density of businesses and population and those who don't have as much to tax. Admittedly the expenditure level would be different, but surely it would mean some level of inequality?

thats a point but I think not a major obstacle because you'd probably have to have something equivalent to the barnet formula.

While the revenue generation in a place like Cork county might be lower the expenditure might be higher. Still nothing is insurmountable and at least the councils might do more than pretending to process planning permissions or wait is that TDs.

[Duth Ealla]

It all sounds great, but in reality, most of our Local Authorities are too small to justify the overhead involved in collecting Local Taxes from things like bed nights.

Its either Domestic Rates or nothing.

Do we then need to have LAs based on counties. Should counties be pooled into administrative regions broader than one county.

[lostexpectation]

Please contribute your wisdom .

I think the reference was to possible sources.

For arguments sake can you think of any further sources.

hey theyre the ones presenting their ideas, it thought there'd be more too it.