John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Watt and his officials and wish to raise with them the issue of commercial rates. The committee has already discussed this issue with officials from the Departments of Finance and the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Valuation Office. It is one that has been raised in committee approximately eight or nine times at this stage. I inform the committee that I have spoken to and met Mr. Watt on a number of occasions on this issue in the past few months. I do not wish to patronise him, but he is probably the only civil servant who has an appreciation of the impact of the increased commercial rate bills on businesses around the country. I left this meeting approximately half an hour ago to attend another committee meeting at which the Simon Community was making its pre-budget submission. When I informed the group that I did not have much time to engage with it because I had to return to this committee to discuss commercial rate values, I was told commercial rates for the Simon Community had increased from €4,500 to €6,000 and that while it had a waiver of 50% of its rates, its income was approximately €20,000 per annum. No one is safe from the Valuation Office and what is going on. When a group such as the Simon Community is expressing that view, it tells its own story.

Where are we in this process? For me, it all comes back to one thing. From talking to local authority officials I believe they are out of kilter with officials of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The local authority officials with whom I deal are extremely concerned about a diminishing rates base. They believe hiking rates will result in more businesses going to the wall. They are adamant about this. When I make this argument to officials of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, they do not seem to get it, which is a real difficulty. That is exactly what will happen.

The question now is what are the potential solutions to ease this spike in commercial rates that is coming down the line.