Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would find those rooms too cold. The people where I do the clinics always give me a nice little snug place. The Minister of State is dead right. He knows what I am talking about. I asked a question in Galway one day. I asked how much of the rates relate to hospitality in the county. Only 20% of the total income from the rates was from hospitality. That would be both accommodation and pubs and restaurants. At the time utilities were a huge percentage of the rate in the county. The bigger factories in around the edge of Galway were very substantial rate payers. I have never really had very productive factories that work 52 weeks a year and in some cases do three shifts a day come to me about the rates being a big issue. Even where I live, the local businesses with that kind of activity - nobody likes any payment - would put rates at the top of the agenda but hospitality keeps coming at me. It becomes much more accentuated in rural areas for the reason I have just outlined. There are very few rural pubs, unless they have a good restaurant and a very good location, that open seven days a week, 12 hours a day. If they are open they are serving two or three customers who are drinking a pint. Their function rooms, which might be two thirds of their space, are empty 90% of the time. It always seems to me that surely something can be done to say the present system is inequitable for certain target groups. We can amend the law and ask why we do not have a rates system that does not only take into account space but also usage.

Even worse are the areas that only have a tourist season from April to November. Do we have any idea or has any study been done on what percentage rates typically are of the turnover of different types of businesses in different types of area? We should get the scientific knowledge and then rewrite the criteria on which the evaluation of rates is based. I am not talking so much about the Bill. It has a big effect because one cannot pay what one does not have. We should see what can be done to make it more equitable and affordable because the last thing we need are empty buildings.

I agree with the idea that something is paid on vacant buildings because otherwise we are just encouraging total vacancy. It cannot pay to leave somewhere idle. On the other hand, it would be a brilliant idea if commercial premises that are converted into accommodation are immediately de-rated.

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