Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State back to the House today. One of the greatest challenges for us is how we attract people into public life. When it comes to councillors there are two real components, one of which is their pay and conditions. We have all made our contributions on that. I believe at this stage it has gone above all our pay grades in this House and sits at another level. Hopefully, we will have an answer to that shortly.

The second component involves trying to give councillors power that has a direct and immediate impact on their communities and the people they serve. When the Putting People First action programme was launched, I believed I saw change from a point of view of progression in restoring democracy at local level, specifically around the local property tax, LPT, process. We can now argue that because of the baselines and the equalisation fund, the LPT actually takes that flexibility away from councillors. Realistically, they are left with a small part of the budgetary process to allocate from a discretionary point of view.

I was a Member of the House and part of the process that brought through the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019. We finished that process and it had unanimous support across all parties in the House. It dealt with the antiquated commercial rates process. It is still antiquated, but the 2019 Act tried to tidy it up. The part that received unanimous support and we all looked forward to was giving councillors the power to introduce a rates waiver scheme. The question today is about why that has not been enacted.

A year and a half has gone by since this Bill was passed. We all know our county development plan process. Most of our counties are reviewing or amending their county development plan process at this stage. The conditions in the Act were that if a council was going to introduce a rates waiver scheme, it had to be part of the county plan, local area plan or national planning framework. The other condition related to the local economic and community plan, which is a rolling document and can be changed at any time. Now is the appropriate time to enact this legislation because every councillor is now going through that process.

Covid-19 has resulted in a further decline of our towns and villages. We are trying to restore life to our main streets. The measure I have mentioned gives councils the opportunity and gives them back the power to which I believe they are entitled. It can make a difference to the people and the communities they represent. I know each scheme must be finally approved by the Minister, but that initial process needs to start now. We need to enact this good legislation, which restores powers to the councils and gives them the opportunity to incentivise business in their towns and villages.

I wrote to the Minister of State on this directly. I believe he also received a letter from a film studio in County Wicklow which put its case forward. It would have been receiving a benefit with regard to the levy scheme. It is, therefore, about restoring powers. When does the Minister of State see section 15 of the Act being enacted by the Minister to give the councillors the power to introduce a commercial rates waiver scheme?

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 was passed by the Oireachtas and enacted on 11 July 2019. Key elements of the Act include a modernisation of rates legislation and practice including variation of rates payment arrangements, the pro ratalevying of rates on occupiers based on period in occupation within a year, the application of interest payments on unpaid rates, minimum charges for vacant commercial premises, a potential rates waiver scheme and amendment to the rate limitation order formula in place in the year following re-evaluation.

These new provisions will add to a suite of options already available to local authorities to support local businesses and ratepayers. Importantly, section 15 of the Act also provides for a rates waiver scheme to be delivered by a local authority to meet national and local policy objectives, including, for example, local area plans under the Planning and Development Act 2000 and local economic and community plans under the Local Government Act 2001.

Currently, only the sections of the Act relating to the amendment of the rate limitation order have been commenced. The commencement of the remaining elements of the Act depends on a number of factors, including the drafting of the requisite prescribed regulations, preparing circulars and guidance to local authorities and ensuring the local government sector will be in a position to have the IT and administrative processes in place to support this new provision fully. It is intended that the bulk of the provisions will be fully operational for the 2021 local authority budget cycle in November 2020. However, based on preparations, they have been delayed by several months due to the impact of Covid-19 and the associated crisis.

The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on local authorities and businesses in 2020 has been significant. The Government has provided a €900 million financial support package to fund the cost of a nine-month waiver of commercial rates, an unprecedented measure that offers support to businesses and certainty to local authorities.

My Department has necessarily prioritised ongoing engagement with local authorities on key financial matters and the development and implementation of a commercial rates waiver.Plans to commence the legislation and introduce the regulations are intended to have effect in time for the 2022 local authority budgetary process. As elected members of local authorities are currently reviewing development plans, they are giving consideration to their own local authorities' objectives for particular areas for intended development, improving existing amenities. It is intended that section 15 of the Local Government Rates and other Matters Act 2019 will be effective for the next local authority budgetary cycle, which will enable elected members to reflect and support decisions they have made regarding development plans at this time in rate alleviation schemes.

Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for the clarification. It is good news that the waiver will be available for the 2022 budgetary process. Nevertheless, on top of what he outlined, there needs to be education for councillors as to what they can and cannot do in respect of the process. The ones I have spoken to were not fully aware of section 15 and the power it gives them. Even if that process could be rolled out with each local authority to advise members what they are entitled to do in the county development plan process, that would be welcome. As we all know, it will take a while to get through the county development plan, and it is hoped the direct impact of this, as the Minister of State noted, will be available to the budgetary process in 2022. The Department might engage with local authority members and give them clear directions on what their powers are in this process, informing them that they should be able to avail of this waiver in the 2022 budgetary process, which is a year from today.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I met the president of the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and his team yesterday and committed to holding quarterly meetings with them. Part of this relates to the engagement with councillors to provide core support to them in order that they will be aware of all the issues they can respond to in the chamber, which are very extensive at this time. The Office of the Planning Regulator provides courses for planning matters. One is taking place this week and there is ongoing engagement with councillors on that matter. I look forward to supporting the AILG. We can raise this issue with it and see what support we can provide it to outline to councillors the powers of the Act and their capacity to incentivise change or create waivers that will underwrite the county development plans they are currently producing.