Carlow County Council balanced the books for 2020 despite an horrific year for rate-payers during the pandemic.
The reality of Carlow County Council’s finances were laid bare at the local authority’s monthly meeting on Monday.
The meeting heard about what was termed an “historic anomaly” where Carlow has been underfunded by central Government in the past.
Head of Finance Pat Delaney says nothing will happen in relation to this until the current local property tax model is revised and he’s not hopeful of a change ahead of next year’s budget for the county.
The meeting heard about development contributions debtors – where €2.63m is tied up mostly over issues with receiverships.
However, despite the pandemic the Council collected almost €14m in commercial rates for 2020. This amounts to 82pc of all businesses paying their rates – a drop of only 4pc in the past year.
