Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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We are looking at the incomes of local authorities. Those incomes come from many and varied sources. Rates are a substantial part of a local authority's income and it sends out the wrong message to waive the rates. If you waive the rates, you leave in place a vacant and possibly derelict building that might be an eyesore. There is no incentive for the owner to do anything because he or she is not being charged rates. Not alone is income being forgone, the building is also being allowed to fall into dereliction. That can have an impact on other businesses that are trying to make a good fist of it in a town centre.