Council Rates Must be Dropped to Keep Employment – Hayes
South Tipperary Tom Hayes has today called on the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government to ensure that Council rates are dropped in the coming year, as this is hampering the ability of local business to operate and will seriously affect the level of job retention across the country.
Speaking following a meeting with Cashel Chamber of Commerce this week, Tom Hayes highlighted the serious situation being created by the unmanageably high rates being charged to businesses across the country.
“In the last few months, I have come across numerous incidences of companies being pushed out of business by the arrival of the notice of rates due to urban councils. It can be the final straw for many companies, and just goes to show that this must stop. I know of incidences where the rates being charged by the Council are higher than the rent itself.”
“We simply must keep businesses in operation – it is pointless for rhetoric on job creation to go on while we are trying desperately to retain the jobs that we have – with little effect while the rates continue to make business unworkable in this country. Every kind of business is trying its level best to cut its costs, drop the cost to the end customer and boost the economy by keeping in business. But the system of local government is so starved of revenue that it has placed the burden on the businesses that still exist – this only stands to increase given the number of companies that have been forced to close over the last 12 months due to the state of the economy.”
“We must get back to brass tacks in this country – if people cannot afford to continue doing business, more jobs will be lost – the more jobs that are lost, the harder we will have to work to get the economy functioning again.”
“The Cashel Chamber of Commerce, among many in the country, has ideas about cutting rates, and about staggering rates for new companies that are vital to both Cashel as a town, and to the wider country. It is all very well to talk about boosting the economy but we need to hang on to the jobs we have and local business in South Tipperary is already taking the brunt of huge loss in revenue. It does not need to be faced with recession-time rates from the Council.
“I know that the Council are facing serious times where they have a substantial loss in revenue, but businesses can no longer afford to take the rates that they are expecting to pay. We need joined up government thinking on this issue – if hiking rates will cost us jobs, then we need to work together to find a means to drop those rates. When this economy begins to recover, we will need small business ready to recover and act, not small business driven out of business”, Tom Hayes T.D. said in support of local business in Cashel and across South Tipperary.
