Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I share many of the concerns of the previous speaker on the manner in which the Government is dealing with the issue.

One of the big promises made prior to the previous election and that is contained in the programme for Government relates to upward-only rents. The Government has not dealt with the issue. Who has been lobbying the Government not to deal with it? Why does the Government have feet of clay on the issue? Upward-only rents and rates are the big issues in provincial towns. People are stuck with the upward-only rent system. If a constitutional amendment is required, surely it is possible to have one to change the clause on property rights in the Constitution, in conjunction with the raft of referenda the Government is due to introduce.

There is a problem with the rates system. The system is outdated. As Deputy Fleming indicated, a good scheme on rates has been introduced in Portlaoise. The county council has made changes, not just on the main street but also on Church Street and other minor streets in the town in order to try to regenerate businesses in the town centre. Councillors have put in place a very good scheme that dealt with many of the issues the Minister of State said could not be addressed. It managed to find a new way to deal with the issue and not to give new businesses an advantage over existing businesses providing the same service. It proves that something can be done. Town centres in Mountmellick, Portarlington, Mountrath, Rathdowney and Abbeyleix are not the same as they were 30 to 40 years ago. Significant numbers of businesses have closed.

There were six shops in Shannon Street in Mountrath. There are none now. That has been caused in part by the rents and rates systems. I accept that there are other factors, but those are major factors that must be addressed.

The valuation is based on footfall, the location of the premises in the town and other factors, but the Minister must take into consideration that the commercial activity and the footfall has changed completely in the past ten years, never mind the past 30 years, and the Government has to deal with this issue.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. Irish Water was referred to earlier. What the Minister has done here is breathtaking. It is a complete write-off. The issue of double liability was referred to. This is not double liability; what has happened here is single liability. It is liability for Joe Mug, taxpayer, and Joe Mug, householder. That is who is caught to pay it again. Once again, the Minister has made a mess of it.

While I am not too happy with some elements of the Bill, I welcome its introduction by Deputy McGuinness. It is important that we try to deal with the issue and help those businesses employing one, two or three people. We must help those business, even if their businesses provide only one job. People talked about ten jobs and 20 jobs, but we know the importance of protecting even one job.

Setting local rates is a contentious issue locally and politically. Each local authority must be allowed the right to set its own rate, but there must be a single mechanism for dealing with that. A number of items of legislation are already in place and it is clear there is a need to combine and modernise those, as set out by Deputy McGuinness.

The Minister must examine the issue of seasonal small businesses that operate out of a premises for a number of months of the year and then stop. That is a huge issue in coastal towns but also in midland towns, depending on the type of business, because a premises may be empty for a number of months of the year but it is bringing in rates for the period it is open. That must be addressed.

We have to examine the issue of start-up businesses. I referred earlier to the scheme in Portlaoise town centre and the streets off that. We must address that, because it is better to get 25% or 50% of the rates than no rates. It is far more important. Local authorities have the power under the 2004 Act to do that, but the Government might consider rolling it out across the country and encouraging it. It is very important that new businesses be given breathing space for one year to let them get up and running.

Legacy rates are a contentious issue. Deputy McGuinness has set out some provision for that in the Bill, but it needs further examination. If the Bill moves to Committee Stage we could deal with that. It is a complex issue. There is no straightforward way of dealing with it, because a number of circumstances have to be catered for, but we should move the Bill to Committee Stage to try to deal with it.

There is also the issue businesses that fold, or go into liquidation, whose debts are left with the local authority. Currently, local authorities are very far down the pecking order in terms of who is the priority creditor. The banks always get in first. That is the way it works with developers as well, and the local authorities are left carrying the can with regard to development levies, rates and so on. That issue is important. I note an attempt is made to deal with it in section 23. That is something the Government must take on board, because local authorities are carrying huge legacy debts in regard to rates, development levies and other liabilities. I would like to see that being dealt with.

Overall, while there are elements of the Bill we might have a problem with, there are many elements that are positive. It is a serious attempt by Deputy McGuinness to try to deal with many of these issues. To continue as we are, with an outdated rates system dealing with town centres, is not an option. The Minister will see that in his constituency and when he is driving across the country. There are examples of it in town centres in many counties. The nature of town centres has changed completely, and the civil servants need to recognise that. The Valuation Office must recognise it also, but we have to recognise it here. We must change the system, simplify it and make it more fair.

We have to find some mechanism for dealing with the profitability of a business, because the sweet shop with the same square footage as the bank next door cannot be liable for the same rates. The current situation puts many small businesses in a very difficult situation because they have small turnovers and very small profit margins but huge rates bills to pay. We have to find a mechanism to address that. If we look internationally we will see there are better ways of doing it. I would like to see that issue dealt with. We have to try to help those businesses survive and grow.

We will support the progress of the Bill to the next Stage. I hope the Government will allow that happen, because we have heard enough talk about it over the years. It needs to update legislation on rates. That has not happened. I acknowledge that there is provision in the 2004 Act, inserted by the then Minister, Noel Dempsey, which I welcome. That provided some breathing space for the schemes such as the one in Portlaoise to operate. However, we need to go much further than that, and this Bill provides the opportunity to do so.

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