A study by KPMG for Wind Energy Ireland‘s revealed that four local authorities depend on wind farms for over 10% of their rates income.
22% of rates in Leitrim, 15.5% in Co Tipperary, 14% in Roscommon and 13.6% in Cavan.
It says close to two thousand more jobs will be added in the sector in the next decade, around a third of them operational jobs.
Russell Smyth, who’s a partner at KMPG, says the amount of tax paid is set to more than double over the coming decade, noting “Windfarms contributed circa 45 million so this is a very important source of revenue, that is going to grow to over a 100 million a year contribution to local authority rates and these local authority rates are then providing the funding for all the services that the local authorities provide, this is another demonstration of how this sector has grown to provide contribution to both communities and to services”.
