Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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All Members hold constituency meetings with constituents and issues that affect them are presented to us. In the case of Galway East, one issue that has repeatedly come to the attention of my office is the re-evaluation of commercial rates. I refer to two small businesses, one a nail manicure outlet and another a hair salon, that had commercial rates heretofore of €600. That has risen to €1,448, which is a 200% increase. One of the liveliest and busy but well run filling stations in Headford, County Galway provides better access and all the stuff that goes with having the best possible business from a safety point of view. Some of these measures were forced on the owners by the council and their commercial rates went from €8,900 to €52,000, which is a 484% increase. I was absolutely astonished when those figures came to me because I did not think that, regardless of how the old system was, there could be that much of an incremental increase.

While I do not like to hear it, I hear from the owners of smaller businesses such as hair salons that they will not continue and they will instead operate in their own homes. That is what makes me sit up. We are all pleading for better support for businesses, and we need to support our businesses because that is what makes Ireland, in particular rural Ireland, tick. I am not sure what measures the Government can introduce. We are not a basket case in Galway East but commercial rates are a major issue for many small businesses. I am shining a spotlight on this today. We need to focus on how the valuation is done. Is it done based on ground space or turnover? Some businesses use a premises for storage but there is no value in storage. What is required is to examine those businesses that are trading and have reason to believe they would be liable for commercial rates. The ones I just mentioned are just a snapshot. There are many more like that. I am trying to have a conversation on how that can be managed going forward.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Roche for raising the issue. I agree that we do not want people who are running a business to decide it makes economic sense to run it from their home. Last Friday, I was in Macroom where we saw the opposite. I met a woman called Nickie who owns a business called Juniper Lane, which makes homemade products, including jewellery and the like - very nice stuff. She had been doing that work from home and availed of a Government grant for a derelict property and converted an old derelict pub on the main street of Macroom. She took the business from her kitchen table onto the main street and brought a derelict building back into use. That is the direction of travel in which we want to go as a Government. It is important in terms of the vitality of main streets, in particular in rural communities. I had the pleasure of being with the Deputy in an abbey in Craughwell and in Kylemore recently, where we spoke to cheese producers. Rural Ireland is the beating heart of our indigenous economy.

The Deputy raised a specific issue regarding rates and I thank him for doing so. It is stating the obvious to say that commercial rates are an important contributor to the funding base of any local authority in terms of the provision of services. It is important that we are always aware of the challenges that can sometimes be posed to ratepayers and employ the suite of options available to try to support them. This is governed under the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019, which was commenced in late 2023. I am informed that this adds to the suite of options already available to local authority to try to support local businesses. Local authorities are using have used this new legal framework since January 2024. Provisions include new rate waiver schemes to be decided by local authority members as part of the annual budget process. I do not say that pressure on councillors; I know they often have a difficult job to do in making everything add up.

There is now an ability to have a rates waiver scheme and this is designed to support not just national policy objectives but local policy objectives that Galway County Council might have in terms of certain initiatives it wants to see take place in rural communities. It is now open to local authorities to design a waiver scheme that supports their county development plans and local economic and community plans. Regulations to support the making of a rate waiver scheme require a local authority to consult with the public in its administrative area and get the views of the public.

It is never the purpose of a revaluation to increase the commercial rates collected. Sometimes this is a misnomer. It is actually about balancing. Where somebody's goes down or somebody else's goes up, the pile stays the same size. I am told by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage that large increases are rare, although I am sure they can happen. The Deputy has outlined one very large example about which I want to learn more. I have also been told that in terms of revaluations to date, the trend is that about 60% of ratepayers have experienced a decrease in their commercial rates bill. Next week we will welcome our Galway council group to Government Buildings for engagement. Perhaps we can have further discussions on this then.

Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I would be the first to acknowledge Government supports for businesses such as those we have spoken about. I have suggested for quite some time that our local authority, Galway County Council, is chronically underfunded. As a consequence, our poor councillors have had to make that ultimate bad decision. The consequences of that have been felt because businesspeople do not want to condemn, criticise or complain. They are in the business of making money, if they can, employing staff and ensuring that they are doing things in a prudent rather than a greedy way. I honestly believe that in the case of the filling station in Headford, which saw an increase from €8,900 to €52,000, some consideration should be given to the fact that the business was forced to do things by the local authority in terms of car parking and has paid a big penalty for doing that.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Roche. I do not want to comment on a specific case for obvious reasons, including the fact that there are appeals mechanisms open and anybody can appeal a valuation to the Valuation Tribunal. The business to which the Deputy referred may or may not have done that. The level of increase to which the Deputy referred is not the general experience but is cause for concern.

Perhaps we can have engagement with the Minister for local government and my Department on these issues in Galway. Now more than ever we have to support indigenous industry. We spoke about multinationals earlier. We benefit hugely from foreign direct investment into this country. It is a really good thing in terms of job creation and revenue. A majority of people in this country are employed in Irish SMEs and we want to continue to support Irish business. I look forward to engaging further with the Deputy on how we can better support those businesses in Galway.