A Sinn Féin councillor says he had to be ‘responsible’ when it came to voting in this year’s Tipperary County Council Budget.
It was passed on Friday after a marathon meeting in excess of five hours, during which the proposed rise in rates or businesses in the county of 7% was the main point of contention.
The decision was made to reduce this to 5%, something that Cllr. Davy Dunne says still sees Tipperary’s rates come in below the National Average.
He told Tipp Today, that in recent weeks he and his party colleague tony black welcomed over 14 million in funding for Carrick-on-Suir and in order to match fund that they needed to support the budget.
He said that while a difficult decision it was the right one for the area:
“there’s no councillor in the forty councillors… that would have done this if there wasn’t the chance of getting in this huge about of money into Tipperary. Everyone of use did it with a heavy heart, we all understand that businesses are suffering and sufferings badly but if we don’t get this money invested into our towns and renew our town centres then there will be a lot more businesses going to the well.!
He went on to say that if this increase is what puts strain on businesses it is likely they may have struggled regardless of an increase:
“if rates are going to close your business then your business is not viable we need to get footfall into our town centres, we need to make town centres more viable and increasing footfall will increase profits.”
