Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials to the House to discuss the important issue of rates. By and large, I support the principle of the Bill but I firmly believe it is tinkering at the edges of an issue that is long past its sell-by date. There must be a root and branch review of the rate collection system for commercial property. The world has changed and, as other Members mentioned, retail business on the high street is not what it was. Online shopping and other developments have changed the traditional landscape of the high street and it is difficult to see it returning any time soon. Senators spoke about the struggles of rural towns. Unfortunately, there are many vacant units on many streets of our towns and villages. Urgent action is required to address the decline of rural towns. That is a separate debate and one we must have sooner rather than later, but it is linked to the debate we are having this evening on rates.

There is also the dark cloud of Brexit hanging over all of us. I have said many times in the House that no country will be more exposed to Brexit than Ireland will be. By the same token, no part of the country is more exposed to Brexit than the rural towns located in the Border counties from Donegal to Louth. A revaluation process is taking place at present in nine counties, one of which is Monaghan. Senator Coffey spoke about the confusion of businesses in respect of the revaluation process. Many business owners are left scratching their heads when they get a letter from the Valuation Office outlining their new rate. I have encountered many such examples both in Monaghan town and in small villages such as Newbliss. In Newbliss, a lady who owns a petrol station business built a sizeable extension to the business to improve the service to her customers. She now finds that her rates bill has quadrupled. If the bill presented by the Valuation Office stands, it could result in the business closing down in that rural town and the loss of jobs.

As I have said previously, people in Border towns are very exposed. Business people are very afraid of what the future holds for them. Border counties always have the challenge that other counties do not have with fluctuations in sterling and so forth. The rates revaluation in Border counties should be suspended until we know what the position is with Brexit. Those counties are struggling to survive with Brexit, not to mind the struggle of trying to come to terms with a revaluation process that is resulting in sizeable increases in rates bills for many business owners.

Senator Coffey made the point, and it is a good one, that many businesses do not see a correlation between the rates they pay and what they get in return. That is a big problem. In many ways, they see rates as simply another layer of taxation. They have their turnover and they go to an accountant to do up their books. The accountant will tell them they owe X amount of money to the Revenue Commissioners and they will try to pay it. On top of that, a rates bill comes through the door. They do not see a correlation between that and the services being provided. We have a job to do in terms of selling to the business community exactly what it is getting for its rates.That is a big issue, because I spoke to an accountant who had a practice in Monaghan town who was just about surviving and no more. He lived next door to two public servants, and when he did some work for them, he found that their net income at the end of the year was greater than his. Yet he had a rates bill to pay whereas they did not. They were using more water, electricity and services than he was, but he still had a bigger rates bill at the end of the year, which he could not understand. We have a job of work to do there as well as on the transparency of the evaluation process for arriving at valuations, specifically in the small rural towns and villages scattered throughout the country. That is an issue. I accept that there are good things in this Bill, which I support, but we need to have a conversation about the future rate collections attached to businesses.