Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. Second Stage of the Valuation (Amendment) Bill took place in the Seanad on 11 October last year, with the common opinion of the Members of the Upper House being that there is an urgent need to speed up valuations and revaluations as a matter of priority. There are a few initiatives that the Minister of State will doubtlessly outline as being within the Bill, with one being a pilot in a local authority in Galway to consider a self-assessment scheme. That should be welcomed. There is also a pilot scheme for considering different ways of facilitating an independent assessment system or an external service delivery scheme. That would be welcome and I hope the Minister of State can expand on the concept.

Having spoken to owners of businesses in my constituency, it seems there are a number of urgent issues, with survival being paramount in 2013. The Minister of State would be well aware in his constituency that the common narrative among business people is if they will survive in 2013. We must be conscious of that worry and look to deal with it. With the valuation system, business owners are indicating it could take two to three years to get a valuation officer out to revalue a property, and there is a desire to speed up the process. Some businesses may be paying very high rates and may have downscaled, with a decrease in revenue and profit margins. We must be careful in assisting businesses when many are still struggling. I spoke to a constituent at the weekend who is in business along with a couple of his sons. He observed that the businesses which are doing well are working flat out but on the other side of things, the businesses trying to survive are slowly losing that battle. We must use every available resource to make the process easier.

We must look to speed up resource deployment with this Bill. It has gone through Second Stage in the Seanad and the Minister might enlighten us today about the timeframe for getting through the legislative process. There should be a sense of urgency.

From speaking to open-minded people in business, there is a realisation that competition is good and business is dependent on other businesses doing well in an area. Some but not all business people have mentioned a rates holiday for 12 months that could apply to new businesses. The idea was raised in the recent past and we must use every possible incentive to attract people to setting up a business. Not every business will survive, and the rate of survival is probably falling, but we should use whatever tools are available to consider the idea of a rates holiday.

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