Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I conducted a survey of five local authorities over the summer and received interesting responses. I sought information on what the top ten companies in each local authority area were paying in commercial rates. In the Cork County Council area, the top ten companies were paying €27 million in commercial rates, while in Dublin the figure was €67 million. A lot of money is being paid to local authorities by way of commercial rates. In the Galway City Council area, the total was €4 million, in the Limerick City and County Council area, the total was €12 million.

My Commencement matter is concerned with whether we are getting value for money from our local authorities. There is a huge variation in the average rates payment. In Cork county the average is €11,647, in Cork city it is €10,894, in Dublin it is €15,223, in Galway it is €9,929 and in Limerick it is over €11,000. Has the Department, in the last ten or 15 years, carried out an assessment of the amount of money it is costing to run individual local authorities, the number of staff employed, the services being provided and the value for money being obtained? If not, is it not time to conduct such a review to determine how we can make our local authorities more efficient and improve the services provided by them? This is particularly important now, given the huge demands in terms of providing housing. There is a need to ensure that once local authority houses become vacant, they are turned around in a timely manner. That was a source of many complaints in the recent past. We must also ensure that the maintenance of local authority housing is efficient and cost effective. Other areas of responsibility include roads, drainage and many other services and it is about time we had a review to see how we can help our local authorities. It is important that support is provided to them by central government. That is the context in which I have raised this Commencement matter and I look forward to the Minister of State's response.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Colm Burke for raising this matter this morning. Local authorities are under statutory obligation to levy rates on any property used for commercial purposes in accordance with the details entered into the valuation list prepared by the independent Commissioner of Valuation pursuant to the Valuation Act 2001. Rates income data are published by the local authorities in their annual financial statements, which are published as a matter of course on local authority websites.The latest year for which complete audited local authority annual financial statement data are available is 2014. Each year, my Department publishes a consolidated local authority financial statement outturn which can be accessed on my Department's website. The total amount of rates collected by local authorities in 2014 was €1.325 billion. A breakdown of commercial rates collected by local authority for 2014 is set out in the local government audit service's publication, Overview of the Work of the Local Government Auditors 2016, which is also published on my Department's website.

Work on the auditing of local authority annual financial statements for 2015 by the local government audit service is ongoing. Rates income is a very important contribution to the cost of services provided by local authorities such as roads, public lighting, development control, parks and open spaces, all essential elements to create the environment in which businesses can prosper. The local government audit service provides independent scrutiny of the financial stewardship of local authorities. The local government audit service carries out audits of local authorities and other bodies in accordance with its code of practice, thereby fostering the highest standards of financial stewardship, governance and public accountability. The audit service also promotes the achievement of value for money in local authorities by undertaking value for money studies and publishing reports thereon. The value for money unit of the local government audit service has carried out a number of studies over the years into the value for money of various local authority activities.

The national oversight and audit commission, NOAC, was established in July 2014 under the Local Government Reform Act to provide independent oversight of the local government sector. Its functions are wide-ranging, involving the scrutiny of performance generally, and financial performance specifically, supporting best practice, overseeing implementation of national local government policy, monitoring and evaluating implementation of corporate plans, adherence to service level agreements and public service reform by local government bodies. The NOAC reports, published in 2016, include the local authority performance indicators and public spending code quality assurance reports for 2015, the rates collection report, the financial performance of local authorities 2013-2015 and a review of local authority performance of the functions under the private rented houses regulations.

Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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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.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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It would be worthwhile for this House, or a committee of the House, to have a debate on rates and the value of the contribution from business. It would be relevant in the context of the debate we will be having in the months ahead on water and other charges. In addition to the national arrangements I have outlined, there will be plenty of opportunity for reports to collect and analyse data and it is important to highlight the role of elected members of each local authority. As well as setting the level of commercial rates to be levied, as part of the annual local authority budget process councillors have an important role in overseeing the work of the council executive in running their local authority. It is vital that elected members in individual local authorities use the powers available to them in this regard as this provides a mechanism for oversight at a local level where the local circumstances of individual local authorities can be taken into account. There are a lot of reports that need to be debated, locally and nationally, and maybe the Seanad could feed into that debate.