Roscommon County Council has been fined and will appear on a list of tax defaulters in December.

The local authority has apologised for becoming a defaulter, saying it was due to a systems error.

The Roscommon Herald reports that the shock news emerged at Monday's monthly meeting of the council, where councillors were told that measures have been put in place to ensure this mistake could not occur again.

Councillors heard that the local authority was VAT audited by Revenue Commissioners last November for 2016 and up to October 31st 2017.

However, a systems error relating to July & August 2017 had occurred leading to a VAT underpayment of over €331,000.

This was subsequently paid, but Roscommon County Council will appear on the tax defaulters list later this year, and was also fined for the error.