Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputies Daly and Wallace on the issue of rates. The Minister of State referred to local government reform. The abolition of town councils will result in higher rates for many businesses. No detail has been provided on rates equalisation. Many businesses in town council areas pay a lower rate than businesses in county council areas. Will their rates increase as a result of the abolition of town councils?

Has the Minister made proposals to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on introducing an inability to pay mechanism for businesses which do not have the funds to pay the rent for a specific location?

I recently met representatives of the Waterford city centre business association. The re-rating project in Waterford is resulting in horrendous increases in rates for premises whose value has declined. Business in the city is not even at the level recorded in 1986, yet the rateable valuation of many premises is increasing significantly.

Deputies cannot ask direct questions about financing for small and medium-sized enterprises because they are redirected to the Department of Finance. Asking a question of that Department is akin to throwing a ball against a haystack. Surely the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has a position on the possibility of establishing a bank to provide funding to domestic small and medium-sized businesses, as the former ICC Bank used to do. We are back in that space and I hope the Department acts as a champion in government for the case for having a specific focus on banking and an outlet for domestic companies.

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