Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As other speakers mentioned, this is an area in which reform is badly needed. There is no question about that. There was much expectation that this Bill would change all the things that were wrong, particularly the pressures the current valuation system is putting on struggling businesses at the worst possible time. Senator Byrne said there were businesses in his constituency paying more in rates than in rent. We all have examples of that and of businesses which have been driven to the wall due to inability to pay costs put on them by the State. That has resulted in people losing their jobs and the consequences for the State are unemployment payments and so on.

As stated by Senator Sheahan, there is a need and an opportunity for creativity in this Bill. I share his view that the opportunity has been missed. The failure to include an inability to pay clause is a glaring omission in this Bill. It is included in the UK system and there is no reason we cannot do so here. It is the change that is most needed as we try to help struggling businesses over the next few years until things pick up. The failure to include such a clause will cost more jobs, and that is hugely regrettable.

Senator Byrne referred to the limited provision for self-assessment. If we are to try to speed up the process - and there is an acceptance that over the past few years re-evaluations have taken an insanely long time - self-assessment can and should have a role. It works perfectly well in the Revenue Commissioners context and there is no reason it cannot have a stronger role here. The Bill is unnecessarily limited in that respect. There are no changes to the subsequent occupier clause and the appeals mechanism is deeply flawed.

Like Senators van Turnhout and Keane, I support the calls by Early Childhood Ireland for a special provision for child care providers. We need to consider this issue and I hope it is one the Minister of State will revisit between now and Committee Stage and that he will engage with groups on it. We need to have a sensible, fair and affordable system for child care providers because to treat them like any other business makes no sense. We must come at this from a whole of government point of view. It is nonsensical to have one half of the Government saying that we need to support child care and make it more affordable to parents and then put impossible costs on child care providers which are passed on to parents who find it impossible to cover the cost of child care. It feeds into their decisions about whether they can afford to go back to the workplace. We need some joined-up thinking on that and I hope it is something on which the Minister of State will reflect between now and Committee Stage.

Other Senators referred to the concerns raised by the Irish Hotels Federation in regard to the possible unconstitutionality of the Bill. This is a really serious issue. As a House, we have a responsibility to ensure we do not pass legislation which we believe runs a serious risk of being unconstitutional. The test for that is set out not only in Article 15 but in well-established case law. Senator Barrett referred to Brennan v. the Attorney General. The City View Press case set out the principles and policies test and the John Grace Fried Chicken and JLCs case provides very clearly that we must ensure, when we pass legislation delegating functions to other bodies, that test is satisfied. I do not believe it is, and other Senators also have concerns. It is important that this is revisited before Committee Stage.

As the Irish Hotels Federation pointed out, the new powers being given to the Commissioner of Valuation effectively amount to an unfettered right to set rates in the manner he or she considers appropriate. No objective criteria are set out in the legislation as to how we arrive at a valuation. Effectively, the commissioner is being given a power, which was shot down in Brennan v. the Attorney General, to levy taxation, which is a function of the House and not something that can be delegated to any other body. It is up to the House to set charges. If we delegate this function to another body, it needs to be clear in the legislation what principles and policies that body will work under. We cannot give somebody an unfettered right to decide. The Minister of State knows that.