Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this important legislation regarding a matter that has been the focus of conversation in most of our towns, villages and cities for the last 20 years or more.

I agree with the issues raised by the last speakers regarding charities and sports clubs. The rates should be restricted to the commercial use and should not be extended beyond that.

Deputy Calleary raised the very interesting point of legacy debt. That is not legally enforceable. One cannot force somebody to pay the debt of a previous occupant. I realise some local authorities do that, but not all of them. It amounts to a scheming way of effectively preventing any enterprise from going into a vacant building.

Rates are the one issue that affects the commercial life of our towns and villages. They affect the hotel, pub, catering and administrative sectors. Everything that is likely to be located in the centre of a town or village is dramatically affected in a negative way by the level of rates, and the rates are automatically affected by the valuation system. How the valuation system applies in a particular area is totally random. It looks as though somebody has stuck a pin in a map and stated what level of commercial activity would be likely to take place in that area, and businesses are penalised because their commercially generated activity is not sufficient to fund it. It is a case of "Tough luck." I hope the Bill will take account of the need to balance the extent to which a particular enterprise is capable of raising revenue with somebody's desktop assessment of what that should be.

Like actual practice and tasting the soup, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I have not had a chance to study this sufficiently, but I would suggest that after a period of six months or a year there would be a review to see the extent to which the enterprise in question is capable of surviving in a particular location, given its footfall and revenue-generating capacity. There is no other way to do it.

I apologise to economists all over the country and the world for what I am about to say. I have to apologise for this on a regular basis. However, If one were to assume the various contradictory opinions of the economists and apply them to the level of commercial activity likely to be generated in certain areas throughout the country, there would be many differing views. A means has to be found which will somehow level the playing pitch and enable an entrepreneur setting up in a town or village, giving employment and providing a useful service, to do so without fear of a major slice of his or her income being taken away in rates before getting started. A hotel - not the biggest one in the world - can expect to spend €300,000 to €400,000 in rates before the doors are opened at all. There is nothing unusual about this. The nearer to the capital city, the worse this gets. Some hotels and commercial premises in the regions are heavily penalised in the same way.

The need for variation needs to be incorporated into the system which determines the level of rates, but it needs to be refined. Some measure has to be taken. There used to be a rule of thumb on this where someone would tell a ratepayer that, on the basis of the size of the premises, it would, in theory, generate a certain amount of revenue a year. How in God's name could that happen? There is no way that anyone can do this, unless the ratepayer is cutting diamonds or something like this and it could be assumed there would be a certain high level of commercial activity. There is a huge variation in the degree to which revenue can be generated by various activities. In many cases it is necessary to locate enterprises in the centre of a town or village. If located in a remote rural area, they will not have the necessary footfall and will not survive. Some industries can survive in such circumstances but others cannot.

I have been around long enough to remember previous valuations. I always had a great deal of hope when a review of valuations took place, but, after the review, in some places things were worse than they had been. Some people had a massive increase in the rates burden as a result of the review. I do not know how the people concerned managed to come up with a valuation which could do such a thing. We still live in straitened times and, notwithstanding the recovery, there needs to be some degree of uniformity across the country, with checks and balances, in order to ensure the burden is within the capacity of the commercial operator.

Other speakers referred to the growth of multinational supermarkets and corporations and its killing of the centres of towns and villages across the country. This is a fact. The other thing which kills the centre of towns and villages, along with rates, is a lack of parking. When a person arrives in a town now the first thing he or she will recognise is that, if in a car, he or she is not welcome. The idea, presumably, is that a person would arrive by balloon or hang-glider and descend onto the middle of the main street of the town or village and hope that he or she will ascend into the heavens thereafter when wishing to leave. It does not work this way. We have to encourage the development of our towns and villages - there is more than one element to this - by giving a clear indication to shoppers and consumers that they are welcome. They should be invited in, treated well and provided with a parking space. I will not digress any further on that.

Incidentally, I have never understood modern carparks. I can never understand why someone does not put a commercial premises on top of them, such as a revolving restaurant, as is done in other countries. It appears not to be possible here. I cannot understand why there is this lack of flair.

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