Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am fully aware as a ratepayer and business owner that revaluation has been happening over a number of years. In many cases, it has added fairness to existing rates but it has come to my attention recently, and the case is not based on my constituency, that the new way of evaluating rates for petrol stations and service stations, which is based on their turnover rather than the previous method, has caused these businesses to receive astronomical rates bills. In some cases, they are 500% of what they were paying originally. A particular case is in Cahir, County Tipperary. The rates bill for a business has increased from €20,433 to €97,300 and the business has not grown substantially in the intervening period.

When I looked into this I saw that turnover was being used as a variable in the equation. As a business person, I questioned how anyone could have let it be part of the equation because, as we say, turnover is vanity and profit is sanity. Here we are with a metric being used that does not necessarily reflect the profit margins of a business.

Petrol stations deal with a high cost but low margin item that is required by people to get about in their daily lives. In rural areas, the petrol station is also often the local shop. I find it very concerning that a rates bill could increase fivefold. I understand there is an appeal process but it is a bit late if we are looking at a small business, particularly in rural Ireland, where there might be bigger stations with probably similar turnover but low profitability. No business could sustain an €80,000 increase. It would be looking at staff cuts.

6 o’clock

I question the wisdom of how this was decided and how it could not have been flagged in advance. We are now in a situation where I am looking at a rates bill for a particular business - it is in black and white in front of me - of nearly €100,000. This seems to be an anomaly. Maybe it was intended but it appears to be grossly unfair. It puts a huge strain on businesses that may assume this rate will continue as is and, therefore, there is no way their businesses will be sustainable. I would welcome the Minister of State's comments and perhaps any solutions he might have for these people.

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