Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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116. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the action being taken to assist small and medium enterprises that are forced to pay high commercial rates each year, which is costing jobs. [47517/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The levying and collection of commercial rates is a reserved function of the Local Authorities which come under the policy remit of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D. The Annual Rate of Valuation (ARV) is decided by the elected members of each Local Authority in their annual budget.

This Government is committed to making Irish business keenly competitive in ever more challenging global markets. In order to help SMEs to be competitive, we are striving to keep all costs on businesses as low as possible. Government actions to support small and medium sized businesses in the domestic economy have been set out in the Action Plan for Jobs 2012 and 2013 and work will continue in this respect in the context of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014.

Significant progress has been made in a number of areas, including:

- Improving Access to Finance through the Credit Guarantee Scheme and the Microenterprise Loan Fund Scheme;

- Tackling the issue of late payments through the transposition of the EU Late Payment Directive into Irish legislation;

- Development of a Single Licensing Application Portal; and

- Reform of the County Enterprise Boards through the establishment of new Local Enterprise Offices.

The Action Plan 2014, which is currently being finalised, will seek to build on the progress already made and is set to deliver a further suite of actions to support enterprise. SMEs will continue to be a key focus of this process.