Commercial Rates / Charges & Annual Budget - Fingal County Council

4
Introduction
David O’Connor
County Manager
January 2008
Dear Ratepayer
I am pleased to introduce once again our annual booklet giving some useful
information on commercial rates, water charges and our Revenue Budget for
2008.
As you will see from our Budget figures, we expect to collect €114.5M in
commercial rates this year, an increase of close to €12M on last years figure.
Economic development in Fingal continued at a significant rate in 2007 and close
to €8M of our increased rates figure is as a result of buoyancy – i.e. newly
valued commercial properties coming on stream. The balance of the increase of
€4M comes from a rate increase of 3.75%, which I am satisfied will continue to
see Fingal with the lowest cumulative rate increase in any City or County Council
in Ireland over the past decade.
The last decade has seen remarkable growth in the economic
development of Fingal, now the fastest growing county in the country. According
to the last Census (2006), the population of Fingal now stands at 240,000, an
increase of 22% in just four years. It is expected that the population will increase
to over 250,000 by 2010. Swords, the County’s administrative capital saw its
population increase to almost 40,000. This ongoing growth in Fingal is being
supported by Fingal County Council and the Fingal County Development Plan
2005-2011, through the development of housing, commerce and needed
infrastructure.
Fingal is one of Ireland’s most important and dynamic business
locations and continues to attract many of the world’s top businesses. More than
5,000 businesses call Fingal home, and among these are several prominent
multi-national companies. Economically, Fingal has the youngest and most
active population in Ireland. This explains why the County continues to be such a
hive of economic activity.
As a place to do business, Fingal has the lowest rents and commercial rates in
the Greater Dublin Region. This is important from a local competitiveness point
of view and something that I am acutely conscious of. As I mentioned above,
Fingal has maintained the lowest increase in commercial rates of any City or
County Council in Ireland over the past decade and our approach to rate
increases has yielded very good results in terms of inward investment. I
acknowledge and greatly appreciate the important contribution from our
ratepayers to our annual budget. In return, the work we do in development
terms makes Fingal an attractive place for business to locate, thereby
facilitating long term job creation.
Fingal County Council supports businesses in the county through Industrial,
Economic and Enterprise Development. Job creation, particularly in developing
areas is a key priority for Fingal County Council and there have been many
successes in the development of industrial parks on Council owned lands
during the past number of years most notably at Stephenstown Industrial Estate
in Balbriggan, the Beat and Base Enterprise Centres, and Damastown Industrial
Estate, Mulhuddart. Work will shortly commence on a new enterprise centre in
Drinan, just south of Swords under a joint venture arrangement with a private