Joe Behan - Independent Councillor - Wicklow County Council


Go to content

Main menu:


Property Tax Increase

Archive Statements > 2015

€2.5 million Tax Rise for the People of County Wicklow


I was shocked and disappointed when a majority of councillors voted to increase property tax by a whopping 15% at the Council meeting on Monday.

The Dept of Environment recently confirmed that this increase was not necessary to run the Council’s affairs yet this finding was ignored by Councillors who voted to levy an additional €2.5million on the hard pressed residents of County Wicklow.

It appears that the policy of the mainstream parties on the Council is to levy additional taxes whenever they get the chance even though the service now being provided by the County Council is the most restricted it has ever been.

County Wicklow residents are already victimised by the property tax valuation system which artificially raises the value of property because of our proximity to Dublin but bears no relationship to the quality of services being provided to residents of our county by local and national governments.

We have no hospitals, no indigenous third level institutions, few major industrial employers, poor transport infrastructure and crippling housing shortages. We are not getting a fair deal from central government and when councillors have a chance to lighten the taxation burden to compensate for this lack of infrastructural investment, they vote to increase the burden by 15%.

This is impossible to understand and will be difficult to justify to the people of County Wicklow in the months to come.

Joe Behan
Independent Candidate for Wicklow/East Carlow



Serving the people of County Wicklow since 1985 | joebehan@outlook.ie

Back to content | Back to main menu