Support plea for new rates group

SHANNON businesses are being urged to get behind a new group looking to cut commercial rates.
Tenants at the town centre were written to last week with information about the ‘Employers for Affordable Rates’ group and Darragh O’Connor, who has the Texaco station in Shannon, said he is hoping Clare business people will support it. “I heard about it starting up and I got in contact with them.
“I found there wasn’t much happening in the Clare area so I offered to try and get businesses in. It turns out John Dillane in the Ennis Chamber is involved and both of us are trying to get businesses in Clare working. This started off as Wexford Employers Against Rates and it has turned into Employers For Affordable Rates and it’s being rolled out to the other counties,” he said.
He said while other people may be suffering more than himself, the burden of rates is still very onerous. “It’s very serious. For me, it’s €21,500 a year and I simply can’t afford it at the moment. I’ve taken out a loan to buy the place and it’s basically two months of repayments per year.
“I’m running a business, I’m employing 17 people, it used to be 20 but I haven’t replaced three. I just think it’s shocking that people are not being encouraged to open businesses. At every door you turn to, you are being pushed away. I had a clothes shop in the town centre and I lost it because of rates and the downturn,” he added.
He said conditions are very difficult for his filling station at the moment and sales are down by around 100,000 litres per month.
Many people are discouraged to start a new business because they fear being landed with a large rates bill, according to Mr O’Connor. “I know umpteen people who have gone to the town centre and they are offered a deal on rents and service charges but then the people find out they have to pay these massive rates, so they say no, they won’t do it. Businesses won’t commit to the town, they won’t start up unless something is done.”
He said despite the challenging conditions faced by business, they are still paying boom time rates bills. “There’s been no drop at all. All we’ve been told by the town manager is that it won’t go up this year. That’s the only assurance we have and it’s only for this year.”