Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make two brief comments. I have sympathy with the intent of the amendment but I do not support the mechanism by which this is being done. We must keep in mind that any such exemption could potentially have a significant impact on the revenue coming into a local authority or, more important, it could have a significant impact on local authorities during an economic downturn for example. Part of the difficulty with our rates system is that its value is that it gives local authorities a consistent source of revenue regardless of the economic cycle. The difficulty is that that creates a challenge for businesses.

Nobody has yet found a way to marry those two things, though many people have tried. I would prefer a mechanism whereby local authorities at particular times could use the abatement process to make democratic decisions about particular problems in particular sectors or locations and they can do that in the full knowledge of the revenue consequences for them. I would prefer that they have some mechanism to do that. It would then be possible, at least, to make those local decisions. I would worry that, even with the best will in the world, if the Minister were to make such regulations it might not be possible to apply them sensibly in each local authority area.

I get the Deputy’s intention but I do not think his amendment solves this particular problem. During the depth of the recession, local rates officers and managers in a significant number of local authorities took pragmatic decisions to keep businesses alive. They were in fact beaten up by some politicians in this House because rates collection levels fell significantly. Deputy Cassells is correct, however, that this did not happen everywhere. Anything which potentially reduces the revenue of a local authority without it having some control over it, particularly its elected members, is a matter we should caution against. It is on this basis I will not support the amendment.