John Kelly (Labour)

Since April I have repeatedly raised the issue of commercial rates. The Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy John Perry, gave a commitment in the House to a full review in this regard, but nothing has happened. A friend recently told me that a ridiculous practice is happening throughout the country where, if a local authority is finding it difficult to extract commercial rate payment from a business, it will employ a team of solicitors to do so on its behalf, to whom it pays 10% of the payment in question. Moreover, the solicitors are employing debt collectors to do the work, with the latter receiving a further 10% of the rate payment. Will the Leader urge the Minister of State to fast-track this issue? If we can afford to do without 20% of commercial rates through the payment of solicitors and debt collectors, surely that 20% could instead be passed on to hard-pressed business owners by way of a rent reduction? I urge the Leader to convey these concerns to the Minister of State, who is slow in dealing with the issue.