Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Fielding. We have discussed some of these issues previously with retailers and the same points keep coming up. I suppose this is because they are not being resolved, which is a problem. Mr. Fielding was not very complimentary in his remarks about councillors, perhaps with good reason. Under the new regime in local authorities, councillors will have a greater role in respect of local enterprise offices. In terms of economic development, does Mr. Fielding think their role, regardless of whether it comes from themselves or is forced on them by management, will involve taking these issues more seriously? Is he confident that that will?

At some of the first meetings of county councils there have been proposals to reduce property tax by 15%. One can look at this in two ways.

It will either put more money back in people's pockets to spend in retail units or it will make them over reliant on rates from businesses.

Does Mr. Fielding think there is a part to play in getting people into vacant apartments over retail units and old houses in town centres? I agree with Senator Feargal Quinn on the parking issue which is one between the owners of units and workers.

With regard to the so-called Tesco tax, many out-of-town units are leased by independent traders who are entrepreneurs trying to make a go of a business. Could some of them be made unviable without making town centres viable if this tax were introduced?

Mr. Fielding referred to towns in the 1950s. Many of those businesses were owner occupied and they did not have to bear the cost of rent and so on. The ethos has changed since. People have to pay rent and cannot make a go of it.