Fianna Fáil councillor Alan Cheevers has said the Galway City Council needs to publish a yearly transparency report on how local property tax is being spent in communities.
His comments come following a decision by councillors not to increase property at Monday’s local authority meeting.
The chief executive Of Galway city council, Brendan Mc Grath, proposed that councillors should look at an increase of 15 per cent to the local property tax rate but it was opposed by councillors except for both Green Party councillors Martina O'Connor and Niall Murphy and Social Democratic councillor Owen Hanley.
Cllr Cheevers said; "Now is not the time to increase the rate. I believe that many of public are financially restricted because of Covid-19 and also many across the city who are living in private managed estates, are not only paying local property tax but also management charges.
"I also believe the public need to see more transparency on how this money has been spent. Many of public believe they are not getting value for money. I believe a yearly report should be published.
"I have spoken to many of my constituents over the last few weeks on this issue [and] one example given to me was the recent decision by Galway city council when they cut grass in council managed estates; they will not take away [grass cuttings]. But now, the new policy is that residents and residents committees must pay themselves to dispose of the cuttings; I don’t believe this is acceptable."
