60% of local authorities raise rates

MORE that 60% of local authorities have increased their charges at a time when the focus of the economy should be on reducing costs, Chambers Ireland said last night.

A Chambers Ireland study found that 22 of the 34 local authorities in Ireland have increased charges. However, 12 other local authorities have opted for a 0% commercial rates increase. This data was gathered from a census of local authority charges collected by chambers throughout Ireland.

Chair of Chambers Ireland’s ratepayers council, Hilary Haydon, said: “Local authority charges such as commercial rates, water charges and development levies have been increasing year on year.

“Yet in 2009 our collective focus must be on cost cutting and containment.

“The cost of living is declining. Wage costs are declining. Why are local authority charges not doing likewise? These charges, which must be paid whether a firm is profitable or not, damage competitiveness and add to the other economic challenges faced by Irish business.”

Mr Haydon said, given the current performance of the economy and our manifest need to restore competitiveness, all local authorities should pass on the benefits of the pay pause and pension levy to public service salaries, and revisit the calculations on which any agreed increases were based, not just on commercial rates, but also in water and waste charges.

“Councils must not simply move charges from one heading to another. They must pass on cuts in costs that they have achieved over the past year to business in order to both help those businesses contain costs, and sustain local authorities’ own long term revenue streams,” he concluded.

The 12 who did not increase charges are: Cavan County Council; Cork County Council; Donegal County Council; Kilkenny County Council; Laois County Council; Leitrim County Council; Limerick County Council; Mayo County Council; Monaghan County Council;; North Tipperary County Council; Offaly County Council and Sligo County Council.