Donegal County Council collected €34.7 million in commercial rates in 2024, up €3.3 million on the previous year.
It was the highest commercial rates collection in the history of the Council.
In 2024, commercial rates bills were issued to 4,305 customers in respect of 5,607 properties across Donegal, to the value of €48.4 million. Of that, €4.5 million euro worth of bills were written off, 61% of them was in respect to vacant properties.
€34.7 million has been collected by Donegal County Council to date, representing a collection rate of 80% while arrears totalled €13.7 million, down €650,000 on last year’s figure.
2,167 customers availed of the Early Payment Incentive Credit scheme while the Council engaged the services of a specialist legal debt recovery firm to deal with 150 cases in 2024.
The energy/utilities and telecoms sector accounted for the highest amount of commercial rates bills collected in Donegal in 2024 at €8.3 million.
That was followed by the hospitality sector, which paid just over €6 million last year.
This has led to calls on Donegal County Council to write to the Government calling once again for a review of the VAT rate for hospitality businesses.
Councillor Micheal Naughton says the sector is continuing to struggle with rising costs:
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