Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak to amendment No. 20 in our names which covers the last point that was made by Senator Cullinane. We are talking about the rates issue, and the Minister said earlier that the powers of the town councils will now be exercised at the municipal district level, then the most fundamental power is the power to raise revenues. If that is not going to be applied at district level, which it is not under this Bill, and that is the reason we tabled this amendment, then what the Minister has said is incorrect. The municipal authorities will be no more than just what the area committees or the district committees are now. We have had those in Wexford since 1979. They are a very effective way of looking not at policy but at the administration of services. That is what we apply them for and officials came before us and were accountable whether it was for water services delivery, domestic refuse, roads or housing. All the areas for which the council had responsibility for the delivery of service functions within those districts were discussed with the local councillors in that area and it worked very effectively for us.

I was glad that when the Local Government Bill was enacted in 2001 it took that as best practice and applied it across the country. The Minister will have to accept that by not allowing it to happen at municipal level, he is removing a very significant function that applied to town councils. The town council rates in my county, and it is probably true across the country, are pitched at much lower levels than the county council rate.

That is the case in my county and it is probably true across the country. They are pitched at much lower levels than the county council rate. If, as will happen under the new legislation, there is a tendency over a period to have all the rates increased to the county council rate, that will overburden small businesses and small retail operators who are struggling. Many of them that have gone out of business will not be affected but others are struggling in the current economic situation. The system evaluation, about which many people complain, is totally antiquated. The Minister referred to the local government system going back 160 years but the rates system is totally antiquated and is based on theoretical valuations. There is a need for the entire area to be examined. With the introduction of the property tax which is now being applied to every household, perhaps there was an opportunity to have a root and branch review of the commercial rates system. Undoubtedly, as we try to tackle the high unemployment rate, there is a need to incentivise small and medium businesses, in particular retailers and small businesses on the outskirts of towns or in urban areas to continue to benefit from the lower rate and, if anything, to reduce it rather than increase it. The proposal is counter-intuitive to everything the Government should do in terms of job creation. It will have an adverse effect. I know it is of concern to chambers of commerce and business organisations in towns.

I hope it will not be the case that every amendment we propose is rubbished. That is tantamount to the totalitarianism we have seen in the past three years and it should be taken into account. Perhaps it is time to review the approach given the rebuffing the Government received from the electorate in a number of recent referenda.