Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. Rates have been a vexed issued for local authorities and local businesses for many years. We all accept that the system is essentially broken and requires urgent reform. I have been working for some time to have Tipperary County Council urgently reconsider its operational approach to the delivery of the N24 Davitt Street road improvement contract in Tipperary town and in respect of many other towns in which work has to take place on badly needed infrastructure. Some consideration must be given in drawing up the contract to temporary bypasses that could be introduced. We should stand behind the counters of the businesses and understand, from the point of view of their owners, how hard it is to keep the doirse ar oscailt - the doors open. Little or no consideration is given to that, however. Given the scale of the adverse impact on the financial viability of local commercial premises in Tipperary town, I also requested that the local authority apply an immediate reduction in respect of chargeable commercial rates. This would be a temporary, once-off measure. It is a matter of deep regret to me that the council has confirmed that it intends to refuse this request. It is a real punch in the teeth for hard-pressed ratepayers. I am talking about ratepayers who want to pay and who have a good record of paying, not the fly-by-nights that do not want to pay for anything. I salute the business people.

As part of its reply, the council noted that it is disappointed to hear that the businesses are being affected so badly. It stated that the contractors involved are making every effort to reduce the impact on businesses as they carry out works throughout the town. I am sure that, like me, the Minister of State will find the council's use of the word "disappointed" very revealing. Disappointment is no good. The council is in charge and should have consulted, engaged and tried to work with the ratepayers.

After all, they are their customers. A business person who treated a customer like that would be out of business. The connectivity is very poor. The council betrays an extraordinary level of detachment from the commercial reality in the town since the commencement of works several months ago. If the work extends down the entire street, it will go on for two years.

On a related matter, at the start of this year I called on the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to clarify the reason his Department has failed to conduct a review of the economic impact of local authority rates on small and medium sized businesses. That was after the Minister confirmed the absence of the review to me despite acknowledging that the annual rate of valuation, ARV, increased each year from 2016 to 2018. We now know that from 2015 to 2017 local authorities collected more than €4 billion in rates nationally, with €1.34 billion of that coming in during 2017 alone. That is an enormous amount. The latest available figures for County Tipperary, from 2016, showed that while €34.1 million in commercial rates was due to be collected, only €26.4 million was actually collected, leaving arrears of €7.07 million. We know the reason for that was that business is so dismal in the county. It clearly demonstrates that businesses are struggling to pay existing levels of commercial rates, never mind having to deal with year-on-year increases such as those confirmed by the Minister today.

It is vital that businesses and SMEs are supported, especially in light of the challenges that Brexit will inevitably have on them. For this reason, I welcome many of the measures in the Bill. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, to clarify the issue of rates calculation for service stations. That is a major issue. The Minister of State is nodding and looking at his officials. I hope he will clarify the position. I am aware of a wonderful young businessman, Mr. Alan O'Donnell, his father Noel and his family, who have a service station in Cahir. He undertook a significant expansion and gives much employment and service to the public. On the basis that he is selling petrol on the forecourt, his rates this year jumped fourfold from €5,000 to €21,000. Such an increase could not be factored into the borrowings and investment on such a major project. Many other long-standing motor factors and service station businesses in Cahir are similarly affected. They cannot sustain the increases. There are high costs attached to the sale of petrol and diesel and the turnover is low. Something must be done to help such businesses. Was an impact analysis carried out as to how the decision on forecourts and service stations was reached? We cannot have such issues arising. I seek a reply in that regard from the Minister of State.

What does the Bill propose? Among the measures included are provisions to allow local authorities to restate a charge or rate to be levied on each relevant property for which the current occupier or owner of the property will be liable. That is very important because people change. We want to rejuvenate towns. If the rates continue to be punitively high, we will not get rejuvenation and we will not get living towns back again. The uptake of the living city initiative is very slow because it has not been marketed. I am aware that people applied for certain schemes but the response from Tipperary County Council was totally lethargic and inept. The council was slow in giving approval for schemes and it found every reason in the world to deny access to schemes. Long delays were experienced when worthwhile projects were put forward for disused premises, some pubs and shops. The scheme should be simplified. If premises are closed for a certain period, applicants should be able to get a break. That would do two things. It would boost the living environment of the town and bring footfall back and it would also deal with the housing crisis. The Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, is a junior Minister in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. We must encourage people to develop units into apartments or promote schemes such as the previous living over the shop scheme. The schemes should be made more accessible and more effort should be put into them to encourage people to move back into town centres and to get rid of the blight of disused buildings.

The Bill proposes to provide greater enforcement powers by local authorities in their collection of rates through the appointment of an authorised officer with the necessary powers to carry out certain duties under the proposed Act. I am concerned about the proposal because we do not want too much power to be provided. The vast majority do not mind paying rates. We paid them. My late father paid them when there were rates on farms. Rates were always paid. With the stroke of a pen, as an election gimmick, a party of which I was a member at the time just wiped them away. We never recovered. I celebrated the abolition of rates at the time but it was foolish. It was devised by Professor Martin O'Donoghue at the time. He was the first of the so-called messiahs that came along and left us in the mess we are in now. I do not know where he is now but I hope he is alive and kicking.

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