Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agaibh. I welcome the delegates. The real economy is made up of businesses such as those before the committee and has not got the attention it deserves. In recent years, there has been a shift within the resourcing of local authorities. The local government grant has been reduced and as a result local authorities have leaned more on retailers as a source of income. It has not been a strategic issue in the main but how it deals with its retailers has been purely on the basis of where it can get the money and parking is one of those areas. That is what is happening. We are forcing people out. We are incentivising people out of the centre of towns through our policies. The whole idea of a level playing field is very important. I mentioned to Senator Feargal Quinn that there is a benefit-in-kind to the consumer for a free parking space in an out of town centre. We do not want to make life hard for the consumer but at the end of the day perhaps some level of rate should be charged on parking spaces in out-of-town centres. In Meath, we have the lowest rates base per capita in the State which means we have the lowest expenditure per capita in the State. The money that a local authority gets in is directly related to the money that is spent by a local authority. The out-of-town shopping centres on the edge of Dublin are one of the reasons we are losing retail in Meath. I would be in favour of some rebalancing of that process.

In the North of Ireland it is interesting that the local authorities focus on strategies and local enterprises. For example, Down District Council would run mentoring, marketing, merchandising programmes for all their retailers in the centre of towns and would have a strategy with regard to Internet, social media and general marketing and branding for that town to enable it start competing in the region. That does not happen to the same extent in the South. The county enterprise boards have stayed away from the retail industry in the main because of the displacement issue. That needs to change. With the advent of the new local enterprise offices, LEOs, we need to promote local enterprise and local retailers.

In regard to rates, my party has been working on the idea of a progressive rate. In other words, a rate that is being charged to a business would reflect three aspects - what it sells, the size of the premises and the profitability of the business. A seriously profitable multinational such as Tesco pays roughly the same rates as a small indigenous Irish business in the corner shop which is hardly breaking even. In general, we agree on progressive taxes in every other aspect of society, therefore, it does not appear that a block rate is being placed with no understanding of the profitability of the business.

On the issue of smuggling between North and South, the only long-term solution is for the State to get real about equalising taxes, charges and excise with those in the North of Ireland. While there is a differential there will always be an incentive. We can invest in policing and customs but while there is a differential, we will never resolve the issue. The Administration in the North of Ireland is seeking to resolve the issue from its perspective. We believe there is an opportunity for the Government to seek to equalise with the North on these issues.

I have heard on the grapevine that some of the JLCs are in trouble as difficulties are arising. It might be interesting to have some of the unions come in and give their perspective as well as what we have heard from RGDATA.