Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

No issue has divided Galway city councillors like the increase in Local Property Tax (LPT).

A tied vote of nine-nine – carried by the casting vote of Mayor Peter Keane – shows just how divisive the Council management’s proposal for a 15% hike in LPT was for elected members.

The split was not along traditional left-right lines. And members of the Council’s three largest parties disagreed with each other on this controversial issue.

The chasm within Fianna Fáil was perhaps most important. John Connolly – who is contesting a general election in Galway West – voted against. So too did Josie Forde and Alan Cheevers.

But their colleague Keane, who cast the deciding vote, supported the LPT increase. Is Fianna Fáil having its cake and eating it?

Fine Gael was divided equally. Clodagh Higgins – who is contesting the general election in Galway East – opposed it. So too did local authority newcomer, Shane Forde.

The party’s two City Central councillors, Eddie Hoare and Frank Fahy, did what Chief Executive Leonard Cleary had asked – voted for a higher tax on property.

Labour was split also. Níall McNelis, the party’s whip, couldn’t persuade his colleagues, Helen Ogbu (general election candidate in Galway West) and John McDonagh, of the merits of an increased LPT.

Not imposing a party whip – essentially giving councillors freedom to vote with their conscience – is not unusual, but it has implications.

Firstly, on party unity. Fianna Fáil councillors were scathing on social media and traditional media, after the LPT hike was approved.

That stinging criticism was an indirect attack on those who voted for it, including Mayor Keane. If they’re all still talking, Fianna Fáil’s pre-Council meetings should now be livelier.

Fine Gael’s reps are already at war – the failure to agree a pact deal with Fianna Fáil after June’s local election remains raw. And this LPT vote underscores simmering tensions.

Labour insists it is unified, but voters see through that too – is it a party that taxes wealth or dodges difficult decisions?

Less clear are the implications for the ruling pact and Council Budget for 2025.

The Council pact includes 10 councillors, from Fianna Fáil (4), Labour (3), Sinn Féin (1) and Independents (Mike Cubbard and Declan McDonnell).

As well as sharing mayoral chains and committee chairs, they control the Budget for 2025.

But seven pact members rejected an increased LPT, so will that opposition extend to opposing the Budget? Or will they develop the neck to claim credit for measures in the Budget that will be paid for through higher LPT?

The opposition is in a pickle too. Non-pact members who supported LPT have now bailed out the ruling pact.

And, yet if the pact remains solid to agree a budget – which it almost certainly will, despite LPT differences – what the LPT-supporting, non-pact councillors have done is taken flak for an unpopular decision, without any benefit of influencing the Budget in return.

Whatever else you can say, politically it’s naïve, and will sow further division.

Pictured: City Council Chief Executive Leonard Cleary will be joined by Galway County Council CE Liam Conneally at a meeting with senior officials in the Department of Housing next week.