More for housing, libraries, and events, in Fingal County Council’s budget for 2025

Fingal County Council’s revenue budget for next year is up by 7.5 percent, councillors were told on Tuesday 3 December.

The budget, which was approved by councillors at that meeting, comes to €389m, an increase of €26.9m from 2024.

The two biggest sources of income for the county are commercial rates, which are expected to bring in €167.7m in 2025, and grants – mostly from the central government – which are forecast at €134.7m. Another €24.6m comes from rents.

Most of the additional money in the budget for 2025 is allocated to housing, which sees an extra €18.5m, to bring it up to €135.7m. A chunk of that has been set aside for the council’s growing bill for long-term leases for social homes.

Meanwhile, the budget has grown by €1.4m across multiple areas in operations, covering services such as road maintenance, public lights, parks, pitches and recycling centres.

While €500,000 is listed for design and planning for a long-promised swimming pool in Balbriggan.

The bill for long-term leases

At the council’s budget meeting on 3 December, Paul Carroll, the interim director of housing, told councillors that the housing budget was up from €117.1m to €135.7m

The extra €18.6m has been split between a few services.

It includes €1.56m for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, €900,000 more for housing adaptation grants, and €500,000 to housing maintenance, Carroll said. “The age of the housing stock is increasing all of the time.”

Meanwhile, €11.9m had been allocated to more housing delivery with approved housing bodies, Carroll said.

And, €4.8m is set aside towards the mortgage-to-rent scheme –  which supports homeowners at risk of losing their houses – and long-term leases, he said.

That extra money that had been allocated to the long-term leasing of social homes was queried by Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly.

Chief Executive AnnMarie Farrelly, in a written report to Donnelly, said that €4.4m was being added to the pot to cover long-term leases.

That was needed after completion of a housing scheme which the council is leasing for social housing at Balroy House in Carpenterstown in Dublin 15, she said. (Glenveagh Properties has built 82 homes there.)

Also, 172 homes across other long-term leasing schemes “will exit the agreed rent-free period in [the first quarter of 2025] as part of their leasing agreements”, she said. And, the €4.4m increase also relates to rent reviews of existing long-term leasing units for 2025, she wrote.

Under the last government’s Housing for All plan, all local authorities and approved housing bodies were to stop agreeing new long-term leases with landlords as a way to acquire social housing by the end of 2025. Instead, they are to focus on building new social homes.

While Fingal County Council is phasing them out, it still has existing homes on leases that run to 25 years, Donnelly said on Tuesday morning. “So they will have to be paid for, for 25 years.”

The council has leased 159 homes at Hansfield Wood since 2021, Donnelly said. “Most people view long-term leases as a total waste, a missed opportunity on behalf of the council. But I do get the reason. It delivers homes quickly.”

Leasing homes and then handing them back to the owner after 25 years wasn’t the best use of public money, she said. “But it is something we are tied into until their lease is up.”

A council spokesperson said on Tuesday evening that the council has no new long-term leasing schemes.

Still getting charged

The new budget also allows for €1.4m extra for the council’s operations, spread across areas like the maintenance of roads, public lighting, park pitches, open space and recycling centres.

Donnelly, the Sinn Féin councillor, also asked the chief executive why, if The Estuary and Coolmine recycling centres are going to increase their charges for customers, they’re also getting more direct council funding.

The council doesn’t break even on running the recycling centres, but it is constantly trying to minimise the cost, she said on Tuesday. But “we don’t ask our libraries to be cost neutral. We don’t ask for our parks to be cost neutral. Therefore, I really had an issue with the increase in charges.”

Top-up funding is needed to meet rising wage costs, minor contracts and security, Farrelly wrote in response, and the overall increased cost of services is due to the growing activity in Fingal’s two centres, which far exceed the income generated.

Bike lanes and losses

Road transport and safety, overall, was allocated €44m, of which €26.5 is for road maintenance, while public lighting and traffic management were allotted €5m a piece.

The maintenance budget includes money for a survey of cycle lanes in each area with a view to develop a works programme for those, said Mary Daly, the council’s director of operations.

“What I’m focusing on here is not the new cycle lanes,” she said. “I’m focusing on the cycle lanes that are over five years old.”

Green Party Councillor David Healy had asked how much that survey would cost.

The chief executive didn’t give that, saying they would need to procure a consultant or surveying company to do it.

Healy also asked what proportion of road maintenance would be devoted to cycle lanes. In response, the chief executive said they would receive about 10 percent of the budget, while footpaths would get 30 and roads 60.

News that Tier Mobility, a provider of shared e-bikes and e-scooters, was withdrawing from Ireland, was met with dismay by councillors.

Tier had been running a bike-share pilot in Fingal since June 2022. But in an email sent to councillors, the council’s communications office said on Tuesday that Tier began removing vehicles from service on 1 December, with an aim to finalise their exit by 20 December.

That was a real loss, says Social Democrats Councillor Paul Mulville. “We were promised a new e-bike tender for Fingal would be in place, and there’s nothing.”

“Now, Tier bikes is gone,” he said. “So, if we can’t get the private sector to do it, the local government will have to put a public option.”

The email to councillors did however say that it had secured a new contract with Bleeper Bikes for a pedal-bike share, with the new service deploying 150 bikes across the county – up from 125.

Events and community

After housing, recreation and amenities received the second largest share of the revenue pot, with almost €74m or just under one-fifth of the total budget.

For libraries, the total provided was €12.7m, including an increase of €1.2m, which was mostly for payroll but also €325,000 more for the county’s book fund, said John Quinlivan, the council’s director of economic, enterprise, tourism and cultural development. “That brings Fingal to the national target of €4 per capita.”

The total budget for the events programme is projected at €4.1m, Quinlivan said, including an overall increase of €300,000. It’s costing more to throw events, he said, and the programme has grown, making it a challenge to maintain.

That includes the likes of Flavours of Fingal, the St Patrick’s Day Parade and the Howth Maritime and Seafood Festival, he said.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Eoghan O’Brien asked about the cost of Flavours of Fingal. It’s now up at €1.3m, he said. “I love Flavours. I think it’s great. But I think in the overall context of the events programme, it’s maybe become a bit too big.”

It may be worth looking at scaling it back, he said.

Quinlivan said it’s a significant event, with a footfall of 80,000 over two days. “The scale is absolutely huge. When you think about it, it is one-third of the budget hanging over two days.”

Other events are less costly. St Patrick’s Day comes in at just over €300,000, while the maritime festival is between €200,000 and €250,000, he said. “We can do an analysis of potential for alternative events or events foregone.”