Mr. Vincent Jennings:

We cannot turn the clock back. It is unlikely that the days when we paid local authorities for water and refuse collection will return. The Deputy has asked what we would like, but it is not up to us to devise a system. We can point out the inherent unfairness of the operation of the current system and the previous system. The valuation system is based on rental values, having been designed to bring about a revenue-neutral situation, but it has enormous losers as well as winners. We would like this committee to consider looking for statistics with regard to the five main pillars of commercial rates - retail, commercial parks, hotels, hospitality and offices - to ascertain which of the approximately 16 local authority areas in which valuations have been done have subsequently seen increases and which of them have seen reductions. It is absolutely the case that hotel businesses which were probably paying a small fortune in rates previously are now the beneficiaries of the new system. As the new system is revenue-neutral, and the local authorities have not been willing to give up a penny, they have had to find other money. We have found that the retail sector, in particular, has been disproportionately targeted. Rates are based on a rental value, but there is no real rental business. Every one of us knows that between 20% and 33% of the spaces on our high streets are empty. In many areas, rates are based on the Celtic tiger era. When the Fingal area was first reviewed at the time when people were crashing, the rate that was agreed was based on 2003 figures. There did not seem to be any ability to say that something was wrong. The Valuation Office had to do it in a certain way because of what the legislation said. We need to have legislation that is able to move with the times and respond when there are problems. One of the biggest difficulties with the system was that it did not give individuals the ability to say in a truthful fashion that it was beyond their ability to make the payments demanded of them. Many people who have no difficulty with paying rates are simply not making enough money to enable them to do so, perhaps because the towns they are based in have been bypassed.

Those are the issues that need to be addressed and legislation needs to be sufficiently fluid to allow for the changed circumstances of people and society.