Ms Tara Buckley:

If one were to sit in a room with a group of retailers who have similar sized stores in different towns around Ireland and hear the different rates they pay, one would realise why it is so difficult to get a group together who will come up with a formula to change the system. Over the years we were promised that there would be a more shared burden of costs across the community when property tax was introduced. It galls many retailers to see councils voting to reduce property tax by 15% while commercial rates are still increasing. They would like to see the two tied together.

A bit like Mr. Redmond, we think that the system should not be such that a business owner who is probably struggling to keep the show on the road could be given a 50%, 60% or 70% increase in one year. That is really difficult for business to handle. Those are two of the issues we would like to see addressed in the new legislation.