Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

That is our primary observation. Ultimately, we agree with Deputy Quinlivan's suggestion. If we could do this through a shared service of local government to bring more uniformity to it, it would be beneficial from an efficiency perspective. That is really what we are aiming for here.

To respond to Deputy Niall Collins's observations and questions, it is very important that he highlights that commercial rates are not the only source of local government revenue or the only source of cost from a business perspective. Development contributions are now very significant costs and, again, they have an impact on investment decisions, particularly decisions that mobile investment will make, whether cross-county or across countries. The other element Deputy Collins raised is the cost of water for business, which is very timely. Given all the attention the household water charges issue has got over the past number of years, the cost of water for business has got relatively low levels of attention. We are now about to enter into a tariff harmonisation process between Irish Water and the regulator. Ultimately, we have been told this will be done on a revenue-neutral basis, but there will be winners and losers within that. As with the challenge we have with commercial rates, we can expect to see a similar competitiveness challenge for business within tariff harmonisation for water and wastewater.

Depending on the nature of their wastewater, some businesses will be very constrained in any action they can take to reduce those costs in terms of having treatment on site. For some, including certain businesses in urban areas and constrained sites, that simply will not be possible.

What is crucial in the context of the review of water charges for businesses and tariff harmonisation is that public funding will continue to be available for the water infrastructure that will be benefitting the business sector in the same way as for the household sector. We are concerned that businesses will be left to carry the full tab for water infrastructure, provision and treatment. That could have very significant competitiveness implications. We will be engaging with the regulator very closely on consultation regarding the harmonisation of water tariffs. We see this as having a risk akin to that associated with the revaluation concerning commercial rates in terms of tariff harmonisation. There could be significant winners and losers. For some businesses, this could be a significant competitiveness challenge.

On the question as to what we regard as a more appropriate system, it is a matter of having full sight of all the charges that business are paying

in regard to water, development levies and commercial rates. Crucially, it is a matter of having transparency in how all those costs are ultimately decided. We do not have that transparent system at the moment. Having some greater uniformity, while recognising the benefits associated with local authority areas being able to have special incentives or rebates that support certain sectors, is something we would support. We do not believe it would be possible to have an entirely differentiated rates system by sector. Given the degree to which businesses are evolving and integrating, it becomes quite difficult to determine what is a technology company, a retail company, a pharmaceutical company, a medical devices company or a food company. If we were to have a sector-specific rates system, it would ultimately be excessively complex to administer. I do not know where colleagues wish to comment on it.