Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputies Ann Phelan, Pat Deering, Robert Dowds, John O'Mahony, Dominic Hannigan, Seán Conlan and Paul Connaughton.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. As a member of local government for 18 years, I am conscious of the role rates play in the provision of services. I am also conscious in the present circumstances of the difficulties many small businesses experience in regard to the rateable valuation approach. In my area a viable, middle size hotel business had to close down because it could not meet the rates at the time, which was an extreme disappointment to the whole community as it was giving an excellent service.

We have called on numerous occasions for re-examination of the whole valuation area. I agree there should be a nuts and bolts approach to valuations. We have seen the anomalies, made representations about them and have then seen re-valuation that does not make sense, although we have sometimes appealed successfully. What we need in this area as well as reform is consistency in how the rateable valuation is applied. I have experienced quite an amount of inconsistency between similar businesses, which obviously creates a level of uncompetitiveness which is totally unacceptable at any time.

The rateable valuation issue has a long history. When rates were initially removed in 1977, it was a serious blow to local government. If it is a case of empowering people to make decisions about given services, they should surely be empowered to collect money to provide those services rather than have a third party of whatever type in Government to do so. The move some time back to allocate car tax to local government had some merit, but it failed in the implementation of a good idea. While anomalies would arise in that regard also, they could have been corrected.

We have had various representations in recent times on small businesses. If a business is in difficulty, there should be a system of appeals in regard to rates, with documentation required, given that we can have "opt out" clauses for many schemes in certain circumstances. These should be tightly monitored and the criteria should be very tight so there is no room for abuse or inconsistency. However, when businesses come forward who cannot afford to pay their rates, those rates should either be deferred for a period of years or a level of payment should be made that is flexible to ensure the survival of the business, because that means the survival of jobs.

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