Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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590. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the measures in place under the Local Government (Business Improvement Districts) Act 2006, a Statutory Instrument or a Departmental circular that oblige the rating authorities, which oversee the corporate entities established to operate the business improvement districts schemes, to ensure that these entities are democratically accountable to the levy-payers in these schemes, that the required annual general meetings are held and that the boards of directors are directly elected by the levy-payers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45257/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Local Government (Business Improvement Districts) Act 2006 provided for the establishment of Business Improvement Districts within the functional areas of local authorities.

A Business Improvement District (BID) scheme is an organisational and financing mechanism with a legal basis, through which businesses can, on a self-help basis, develop and implement initiatives in defined areas to improve those areas for the betterment of the trading environment in which they operate. In a BID, a group of businesses are empowered, where a majority of those businesses agree, to raise a special levy payable by all the businesses in the defined area to pay for complementary local services and improvements, within that defined area.

The Act sets out a framework for comprehensive consultation with the public and business community in an area. In the first instance, a BID proposal submitted to a local authority must be made available for public inspection under section 129D. Following publication of a BID proposal, the local authority must, by way of public notice, invite submissions from the public on the proposal. If following consideration of the submissions received, the local authority is of the opinion that the BID proposal may be inconsistent with the interests of the local community, it must notify the BID proponents of the nature of the inconsistency.

Section 129G provides for the holding of a plebiscite, organised by the local authority, to determine the level of support among ratepayers in an area. In the BID plebiscite, each rateable business has one vote. If a majority of the ratepayers who vote in a plebiscite vote in favour, the BID scheme can then be considered by the local authority.

Section 129I sets out requirements in relation to the BID company which will be responsible for implementing and managing a BID scheme. The board of directors will be made up of businesses or their representatives and nominees of the local authority. At least two thirds of the directors must be ratepayers or ratepayer representatives.

The BID company adopts a budget each year. The amount of the levy on any individual business is determined by the rateable valuation of that business. The local authority collects a BID contribution levy from each business in the BIDS area.

Section 129B provides that a BID operates and has effect for the number of years (not exceeding 5 years) as may be specified in the terms of the scheme. However, this limit does not prevent a BID scheme from being approved for renewal for one or more periods.