Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The information about the publication of the report is interesting but there has been no public debate on it and maybe it is time we had one. We could look at how to further improve the services provided by local authorities and what we should be doing for ratepayers. The Minister of State said the total rates for 2014 were €1.325 billion, which is a lot of local taxation. The public does not recognise that this is being paid by companies, with anything between €1000 for a small shop and €25 million per year by big companies. The public does not have this information about how councils are benefitting from businesses at local level and maybe the Department could provide that information.