THE ADDITION OF over 50 new councillors to Dublin’s four local authorities will mean an extra €1.5 million of allowances every year, the Environment Minister Phil Hogan has confirmed.

All four local authorities in the county of Dublin will see their numbers increased at the local elections next year following the radical overhaul of local government structures that was announced by Hogan last year.

The overall number of councils operating in Ireland will be cut from 114 to 31 with the abolition of town councils while overall the number of councillors will drop from 1,627 to 949 but Dublin is one area where the numbers will go up.

Dublin City Council will increase its numbers from 52 to 63 councillors, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown will increase from 28 to 40, Fingal County Council will see its number rise from 24 to 40 while South Dublin County Council will have 40 instead of 26 councillors.

“The total cost of allowances for additional councillors in the Dublin local authorities is currently estimated to be around €1.5 million per annum,” Hogan said in answer to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley last week.

Hogan said that this additional cost will arise from reducing what he said was “the degree of representational imbalance currently in the Dublin authorities”.

He added that it should be viewed in the context of the overall savings that will be achieved from the changes to local authorities which he said are currently estimated to be around €3.68 million per year.

The changes will come into effect at the local elections which are due to be held next year.

Read: Here are the new boundaries for next year’s local elections

Read: Proposals to overhaul Ireland’s councils criticised by… Ireland’s councils