Local Authorities
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I thank the Minister of State for being here to respond to my Commencement matter. I am looking for an update from Government on the proposal to give powers to local authorities to raise revenues. The Minister of State is a great friend of local authorities and all 31 of them do invaluable work in all of our communities across the country. However, local authorities are highly dependent on centralised Government funding. While they have powers to raise revenues through the LPT and rates, they struggle to meet all of their financial commitments. There has been discussion for many years about giving more powers to local government. I commend the Minister of State and the Government on the undertaking it has given in the local democracy task force. It recently completed its report, and we look forward to Government's response to that.
Today I would specifically like to address the proposal coming from Dublin city councillors. Councillor Daryl Barron is the Fianna Fáil group leader on Dublin City Council. Daryl, the Fianna Fáil group and other councillors on Dublin City Council have been proposing and working with the executive functions to develop a visitor tax. The reason a visitor tax is required is because Dublin city has a population of between 500,000 and 600,000 based on the most recent census, but we get millions of visitors. What happens in Dublin city is repeated in towns all over the country like Killarney, Westport, Cork, Carrick-on-Shannon and in counties like Sligo and Leitrim. Of course, acting chair, there is also Carlow and Kilkenny. All of our local authorities not only provide for their residents but for all the visitors. Last year, Ireland had approximately 6.7 million visitors to our beautiful island. That is great and we welcome them, but with all of those visitors comes a lot of extra wear and tear. If you have a private house with three or five people living in it but that is having visitors all of the time, the wear and tear is significant. There is extra litter, extra traffic and extra noise. There are all of the extras that are required. The Fianna Fáil group on Dublin City Council has been proposing a visitor tax. It is common internationally. If you go to stay in Madrid, Rome or Amsterdam, when you pay for your accommodation you will pay a nominal charge. Dublin City Council has examined this levy. It has looked at it with the executive functions but also with independent experts. What they are proposing is a small per-night charge or percentage of the accommodation cost.
For local authorities to introduce such a visitor tax would require legislation. My Commencement is seeking an update from the Minister of State, the Department of Finance and the Department of local government on where Government stands on that proposal.
Will the Government bring forward legislation that will empower and enable local authorities in their own right, in their own areas, to introduce a visitor tax?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-16