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Council votes for holiday home tax 05.02.08

DONEGAL County Council has voted in favour of levying a tax on holiday homes in the county.
Culdaff-based Cllr. Bernard McGuinness, who proposed the motion, said the local authority was losing out on around €4m annually by not imposing charges on the estimated 8,000 holiday homes in the county. Many of these homes are owned by people from the North who use them at weekends and during the summer months.
Cllr. McGuinness said the local authority was in "dire straits" financially and the motion he tabled would also send a message to central Government that more funding was necessary for Donegal.
Meanwhile, he said he knew of a number of holiday homeowners who were willing to pay a small fee for services such as water. However, there are many others who will resent the imposition of a tax on their second home.
Councillors will continue to hold 
Cllr. Bernard McGuinness
meetings with Government Ministers in relation to the procedure for levying the new tax.
"I believe that because we are a border county, we should get extra funding for cross border developments from central Government," said Cllr. McGuinness.
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