80% of money raised by Local Property Tax next year will be retained locally, to fund vital public services.

The Government has decided that no local authority will be worse off in 2016 compared to this year.

So the remaining 20% will be re-distributed to provide top-up funding to certain local authority areas that have lower property tax bases, due to the variance in property values across the State.

Councillors have again been given the power to decide whether or not to increase or decrease LPT rates by up to 15% for 2016 and must inform Revenue of their intentions by the September 30.