Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Commencement matter relates to the loss of commercial rates as a result of the closure of Lough Ree power station. On 8 November 2019, the ESB announced the closure of two peat-powered generating plants at Lanesborough and Shannonbridge, near the Minister of State's area. These plants stopped generating electricity in December 2020. This was a major blow to employment and local economic activity in the region. Counties Longford and Offaly were negatively impacted not only by the loss of commercial rates income from the plants themselves, but also by the potential loss from suppliers to the plants, including Bord na Móna.

Lough Ree power station paid €1.2 million in rates annually. It was the single biggest ratepayer in Longford and accounted for 15% of the rates base in the county. The rates income loss from Bord na Móna was €16,200. Considering that the average ratepayer in Longford pays €1,782, this puts the severity of their loss into a vivid context. To compensate for the loss of one large ratepayer, another 674 new ratepayers would need to emerge for 2023 out of a rateable property population of 1,455, which will not happen.

To sustain a loss of rates income of that magnitude in one year would mean that in order to compensate on the income side, we would need to pass on an increase of 13.5% to balance the books. Longford County Council has consistently varied the LPT upwards by the maximum of 15% for four years. It was the first county in Ireland to do that. I was my party's group leader and in conjunction with our Fianna Fáil colleagues, we proposed doing that to finance critical capital regeneration projects in the county. It would be wrong to ask the same council, whose funding model is predicated on the maximum upward variation of the LPT each year, to curtail or even completely cease this critical work on regeneration.

I will contextualise the problems we would face with this potential devastating loss of income. A sum of €1.2 million is the equivalent of keeping 35 general operatives employed. A sum of €1.2 million is earmarked to service capital project loans to the tune of €12 million over the next ten years. This, in turn, could potentially attract capital funding of €124 million into the county. A sum of €1.2 million in discretionary income pays for such diverse services as tourism initiatives, community grants, public lighting, leisure centre costs and sports partnership costs. A sum of €1.2 million lost per annum will severely compromise and probably halt our ability to match funding for many Government initiatives, such as the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF; the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF; the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, ORIS; CLÁR and the town and village renewal scheme, which we have been successfully doing so far; and our contribution to just transition projects. It would effectively mean a moratorium on all recruitment. We need a long-term sustainable solution. It is critical for us to alleviate this potential calamitous situation that could arise in the coming years. We have received the top-up for 2021 and 2022, but we want certainty up to 2027 which is when the just transition period was meant to end.

I was involved in a meeting with the just transition commissioner, Kieran Mulvey, also attended by the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Green Party leader, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. In discussing the just transition project, I raised the subject of rates. It was agreed, including by Kieran Mulvey, that this needed to be put into place until 2027. We need certainty. Based on my knowledge of the director of finance in my county, John McKeon, I am sure he is already planning ahead for the 2023 budget and the various projects planned to regenerate our county. I do not think it is too much to ask for certainty rather than me coming here next August or September looking for that top-up of money while everyone agrees that we should get it. We just need to put it in place now so that Longford County Council can plan ahead financially for the coming years.