City traders demand rates system reform

MAJOR reforms of the commercial rates system in Limerick are being sought by city traders.

They are demanding a radical reform of the crippling rates system which they blame for the increasing number of businesses closing in the city centre.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend the meeting due to take place at 6.30pm on Tuesday next in The Strand Hotel.

Employers for Affordable Rates (EAR), the business organisation that is campaigning for a fairer and more equitable commercial rates regime, has organised the meeting which is the first of a series in a series of regional public meetings due to take place throughout the country over the next fortnight.

The aim is to create a national organisation to lobby the Government on rates reform.

EAR says it has received “massive support” from businesses to date and has already set up regional organising committees and has members in all 26 counties.

The organisation was set up by a group of Wexford business people in March and has three objectives.

It wants the Government to recognise the present rates system is unfair and is a direct cause of business closures and job losses.

The group is also seeking an amendment to the Valuation Act that will permit an employer to lodge an appeal due to a change in economic circumstances and an inability to pay.

The organisation is also calling on the Government to undertake a comprehensive review of the present rates system with the aim of funding local government on a more equitable and sustainable basis.

“We are not fighting with local authorities we are trying to get government to see that local businesses can’t fund the rates anymore to the extent they are,” said Brendan Murphy of EAR.

A Limerick/Clare/Kerry branch of EAR was established earlier this month and next week’s meeting in Limerick is expected to one of the largest in the country, such is enormity of the problems that the region is facing.

According to EAR chairman John Conran, a former Wexford hurling manager and All-Star recipient who runs a business in Rathnure, Wexford rates have been described as the silent killer of small business in Ireland today.

“Employers want fair play and say that they don’t mind paying their fair share but we object to an inequitable system that has made the level of commercial rates genuinely unaffordable to many businesses throughout the country,” he said.