Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I am glad to contribute to this debate on an important issue. I listened with interest to the previous contributions.

I would like there to be a reduction in local government charges for members of the public but we must be honest with each other. We cannot have it both ways. If we want to have public services, we must fund and pay for them. There is no simple way out of that. While the Bill may be well-intentioned, it is narrow in its focus. I would like to see it broadened to include other areas in regard to the debate tonight.

Deputy Varadkar has the report of an bord snip nua. We also have the report on the Commission on Taxation, which reported around the same time. That report referred to the broadening of our tax base and mentioned issues such as property tax, the funding of the provision of our public services and water charges. These are all areas that must be fleshed out for the future.

Deputy Penrose rightly mentioned provision of public services through local authorities and it is opportune to examine that proposal in more detail. Some of my Fianna Fáil colleagues and I met with a number of groups, including ISME, the Irish Hotel Federation, the Irish League of Credit Unions and many others that came to talk to us. The single overriding comment the small and medium-sized industry sector makes to us is that the cost of local government charges in this country is completely disproportionate. We must address these issues in a serious way for the future. Commercial rates, water charges, waste water charges and an entire pyramid of charges that kick in for business are prohibitive. There is no return for the person who pays these charges.

In that context it is opportune to roll the ball back across to Fine Gael which is in charge of 28 of the 34 local authorities in the country. How many of those in the past year-----

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