Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment and the views expressed by Senators Quinn, van Turnhout and Daly. Urlingford was mentioned and we have a Kilkenny man in the Chair. I noticed a similar problem in Johnstown when I passed through it last. A major tsunami can strike a town as businesses move out and one must react to such developments quickly. What the Minister has provided for is a determination based on the rateable value of other comparable properties. Is it not possible to provide for a property that has lost a substantial amount of business without comparing it to any other business?

Senator Quinn made a valid point. From my memory of transport economics, I understand a petrol station can lose 95% of its business when a village is bypassed, whereas some of the other businesses in the same village will survive because people realise they will be able to find parking and this attracts new business. Filling stations, on the other hand, definitely lose when a location is bypassed. Is it possible to provide for a person who is on the receiving end and to do so not by means of a comparison with comparable properties, as the amendment provides, but by providing that he or she may simply show the accounts of the business? Where these show a significant decline in business and the property owner can demonstrate an ability to pay, the rateable value should be reduced. I thank the Minister of State for taking this into account in his amendment. Senator Quinn raises an important issue for people in Urlingford, Johnstown and other places.