Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Senator Reilly. I will not take too long. I welcome this Bill. It is innovative. I will just bring up a couple of points about it. My father was a rate collector and, at that time, rates were levied on every property. It was the property tax of the time. I always remember the two moieties. Not every business can afford to pay its rates in one go. That has to be considered sometimes. The size of the business may not allow for it. That should be included in the Bill. The two moieties should not be disregarded. They are there to help small businesses.

I have a quick query. If someone owns a property on which I hold a long-term lease and my business goes wallop, leaving the property vacant, who pays the rates on it? According to the legislation, it would be me, but my business has gone wallop.

I like the idea of the power to limit annual rates evaluation. I was on Kildare County Council in the early 2000s. I always argued that rates should not increase by more than the rate of inflation, which was approximately 2%. The authority came in and said they should be increased by 10%. That adds to the costs for consumers buying products afterwards. It also contributes to inflation. I welcome the idea that the Minister will be able to use the whip on local authorities that decide to abuse commercial ratepayers. The key thing I want to say to the Minister about that is that it must be consistent across the country. It cannot be 1% in Waterford, 2% in Kilkenny, and 3% in Kildare. It must be consistent because the businessperson likes to know what is happening in that regard.

I will speak on the various parts of the Bill later, but I will quickly mention a couple of ideas now. There are an awful lot of charity shops in my own town of Naas. Charity shops pay lower rates. Many of these charity shops are being run as commercial businesses. Their CEOs' salaries are greater than that of the Minister of State. They should be charged rates because they are taking a property that would otherwise be available to a small business. All of these charity shops make Naas look like a ghost town.

What the Minister of State is doing will probably increase the collection of rates. Local authorities should therefore look at putting aside a rainy day fund because not all of those commercial properties will always be as successful as they are now. During the downturn local authorities came to the Central Fund with cap in hand. In the event of another such downturn, the Central Fund will also be suffering so the local authorities should establish rainy day funds to cater for times when their rates bases are diluted. I will speak on the various sections on Committee Stage. I welcome the Bill.