James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Lawlor for allowing me this opportunity. I welcome the Minister of State and the Bill. As we all know, rates are essential. I will raise a number of issues if I may. A public crèche does not pay any rates whereas a private crèche does. In Fingal there is a very young population, great demand on crèche spaces, and not enough crèches. Parents struggle to afford childcare. Should we consider allowing and encouraging such local authorities to offer rates holidays, starting at 0% in the first year then rising to 25%, 50% and so forth over time?

I welcome the provision in the Bill that allows local authorities to use the rates system to underpin Government policy. I particularly think of fast food outlets. A town in my constituency has 13 such businesses along the main street. These should face a higher rateable evaluation, particularly new facilities being opened near schools or educational facilities attended by kids.

I welcome the Bill's clear allocation of liability. Under the Bill a new tenant taking over from an earlier tenant will only be liable for rates from the point at which he or she takes over the tenancy, which may be in the middle of the year. That is clear and I thank the Minister of State for that.

Could the Minister of State elaborate on the provisions mentioned in the Bill to make rates collection on new premises more efficient? Could we also use rates to rid our towns of the many derelict dwellings to be found on main streets? This is a real problem in some towns in north County Dublin. I know that our spokesperson, Senator Coffey, would say that Dublin is flying but, no more than any other part of the country, Dublin is not uniform in its wealth or well-being. There are some towns that are really suffering from dereliction on the main street. We need as many levers as possible to encourage people to make such premises available to those who would like to occupy them, which would result in more business and traffic in the town, rather than leaving them sitting there on a punt that they may at some time be worth a lot more money than they currently are.