Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I lean towards supporting the Sinn Féin amendment. While recognising the burden placed by rates on struggling small businesses, I cannot endorse a motion calling for the implementation of the local government efficiency review group recommendations. This review calls for a €500 million cut in local authority funding on top of cuts going back years which have seriously undermined local authority services. As a former member of Dublin City Council between 2004 and last February, I have first hand experience of these cuts, like other Members who are former councillors. Parks close early and many services have been cut across the board while central funding has been reduced. The motion is effectively calling for more cuts.

The commercial rates system needs radical reform to take account of profits, total incomes and so on similar to the differential rates scheme in Scotland referred to by my colleague, Deputy Boyd Barrett. This scheme is practical, useful and it keeps small businesses in the economy. It is a practical measure, which is not radical. It is ridiculous that a corner shop pays rates on the same basis as a major supermarket chain or a small business on the same basis as a company such as Google. The solution to the problem of local authority funding is to restore the rate support grant from central Government to the level promised when domestic rates were abolished in 1977. This should be funded from a progressive tax system with wealth, higher incomes and large profits taxed to provide essential public and community services.

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