Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to put on the record that I am a commercial rates payer and I have been paying rates for a significant number of years. I welcome the Bill. As pointed out by Deputy Cassells, it is a start but we have a long road to travel. I want to focus on particular aspects of the Bill, starting with the alleviation scheme. This is a positive move from a democratic point of view and the restoration of some powers to the local authorities, which is vital. No two towns in any county are the same. In my own county, Greystones has one of the highest occupancy rates while Arklow has one of the lowest. There are different challenges in west Wicklow, between Blessington and Baltinglass, and Wicklow town. There is a diverse range of issues across the country and no one solution will fit all. This is an important provision of the legislation. Equally important is that local authorities can bring policy into their local area plans, county development plans and local economic community plans. It is a pity all of these were adopted in 2014 and that we will now have to review them. From a democratic point of view, and the restoration of power to our councils, this is positive and I support it.

The provision relating to preliminary valuations is positive from a revenue generation point of view. The local authorities will have the power to make a valuation on a property even though it can be challenged when the Valuation Office determines its valuation of it. The Bill also provides for temporary abatement.

From my reading of this Bill there is talk about having a minimum abatement on properties which we could probably debate further. Much of what I am looking at here in the Bill is about the collection of the money for commercial rates. As a commercial ratepayer, I believe that everybody should pay their rates. It is not just commercial rates but when one looks at local authority collection of finances across every section of finance there is a very poor collection rate involved. That is not reflected in this document where the local authorities are not taking their responsibility for their lack of professionalism in collecting monies due to them. A lot of this involves a mindset within the local authority which says that it does not matter because they can put a burden on the property. We can let it flow into eternity. As soon as the commercial operator goes to sell the property, all of a sudden it hits them like a bang. What has come to the fore in the light of the recent recession - this is a section in the Bill which disappoints me - is that some of the financial institutions took over commercial properties because the business was gone. These institutions inherited the commercial debt that was on these properties. When they sold them on, they never paid that rates bill. Some financial institutions passed those bills on to the next owner, which put the viability of that business in jeopardy. I have some examples in my county were some person had a ten year bill which they had to pay and it put that business in jeopardy.

This is a start but we are all aware that the elephant in the room that we have to tackle is the valuation process for properties. There is a huge mystery to it for all commercial ratepayers. There is not a great understanding of how it works and even after having been in the local authority for 12 years I still do not understand how my property is valued today.

The biggest challenge is the revaluation process which started in 2008 and still has not been completed 11 years on. The whole valuation system is so archaic. Wicklow went through its revaluation process last year. All commercial ratepayers in Wicklow are about to find out in the next month to six weeks their projected new valuations.

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