Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In order to support the local government sector, my Department continues to keep local authority income, expenditure and cash flow under review and is working with all local authorities on all issues arising in the context of the Covid-19 public health emergency.

While the County and City Management Association has estimated the loss of non-rates income for 2020 to be in the region of €91 million, it is not possible to accurately calculate the loss of income from commercial rates for all of 2020 at this stage due to the range of payment plans available to ratepayers and the variety of payment patterns among ratepayers of different sectors.

As the Deputy will be aware, earlier this year a waiver of commercial rates for a three-month period from 27 March 2020 was announced for all businesses that had been forced to close due to public health requirements. I assure her that the Department and I are absolutely committed to supporting local authorities in every possibly way during the Covid-19 emergency. I am determined that there will be no loss of staff or services in local authority areas due to loss of income.

Against this background, my Department has been working with colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on a package of support measures for businesses and local authorities which will address the treatment of commercial rates until the end of September. This will be undertaken in the context of the July stimulus package. This package will be considered by the Government this afternoon and an announcement will follow shortly.

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