Councils owed €325m in unpaid commercial rates
Figures published by the Department of the Environment show €324,959,370 was uncollected by councils at the end of 2010, the latest year for which comparative audited figures are available.
It represents a 137% increase in the amount owed by ratepayers to their local councils since 2008 when the start of the economic downturn began to take effect.
It excludes millions of euro due in commercial rates that have already been written off over recent years and deemed as “uncollectable” by local authorities.
The annual sum of written off debt from rates rose from €50m in 2008 to €92.4m in 2010 as the problem intensified. A total of €222.7m was written off in commercial rates between 2008 and 2010.
The figures for commercial levies that are both uncollected and written off are widely believed to have increased further over the past two years.
The details, released in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin, are sourced from audited annual financial statements of local authorities.
They show that €137.3m was owed to 88 county, city, borough and town councils across the country in 2008. However, the total amount of uncollected commercial rates soared by a further €187.7m to just under €325m over the following two years.
Total income from commercial rates grew €70m, or 5%, to just over €1.4bn between 2008 and 2010.
Commercial rates account for around 30% of all revenue for local authorities on average, although the percentage can vary.
Phil Hogan, minister for environment and local government, said levying and collection of rates were matters for each local authority.
Mr Hogan said they were required to make provision for doubtful debts and to write off known uncollectable debts in accordance with local authority accounting regulations.
Most city councils still recorded single-digit growth in revenue from commercial rates in recent years, although Waterford City Council suffered a 7% drop.
However, councils in all major urban centres recorded sharp increases in the amount of uncollected commercial rates with the figure jumping 146% in Cork City Council, from €5.2m in 2008 to almost €12.9m two years later. It wrote off €5.6m over the same three-year period.
The amount in uncollected rates increased five-fold in Wicklow County Council in the space of two years — up from €824,000 in 2008 to €4.1m in 2010.
Kinsale and Athy are the only local authorities in the country to have reduced the amount owed in uncollected rates over the period.
