Tag Archives: rates

Businesses will not benefit from any commercial cut in rates next year, ahead of the new equalisation process in 2016. Clare’s 2015 Draft Budget was passed at a meeting on Wednesday by 23 votes to three. It was opposed by Fine Gael Councillor Johnny Flynn and Independent Councillors Ian Lynch and James Breen. The new Annual Rate of Valuation (ARV) was set at €72.99, which is the existing county commercial rate. This proposal was passed by 23 votes to two, following opposition from Councillors Flynn and Lynch, with one abstention. Following this decision, it seems as if commercial rates in Ennis and Kilrush will have to increase from €65.45 and €61.93, respectively, up to the €72.99 over a five-year period, starting in 2016. Councillor Johnny Flynn argued there should be plenty of scope to reduce the county commercial rate down to the Ennis rate, considering up to €1 million should have been saved in increased efficiencies, following the abolition of …

ENNIS Municipal District has backed a call for Clare County Council to freeze commercial rates at their current level in the old Ennis Town Council area for the next three years, to give stability to businesses, in order for them to grow and expand. Councillor Tom McNamara raised the matter at the monthly district meeting, telling members that businesses in the town need a timeframe so they would know exactly where they stand for the next three years, allowing them to “expand their businesses and create growth” and job creation. The Kilmaley councillor asked the meeting to back his motion and to allow it to go to the full council meeting, saying, “We need to give them [Ennis businesses] the security to know that Clare County Council won’t be increasing the rates in the town for three years at least and to hope the economy will improve in that time. Then we can have a relook at it and people …

SINN Féin’s Shannon election candidate Mike McKee has proposed to Clare County Council that they apply a new commercial rates scheme for the Skycourt Shopping Centre.  He suggests it should be based on guidelines such as how long a premises has been vacant. Mr. McKee delivered a policy proposal document to the council and explained, “We need to develop Skycourt as a commercial and social hub for Shannon. That will encourage local people to shop locally and workers who visit Shannon every day to stop and shop here too. Lower rates will potentially provide more revenue as currently empty shells are opened up again. The weekly footfall in the centre is 50,000. That should be producing a far more vibrant shopping centre. The rents are actually amongst the lowest in the region but anyone we’ve talked to agrees that high commercial rates are a major problem”. “Senator Trevor O’Clochartaigh has asked the council on our behalf for an explanation about …

HARSH words and some insults were traded at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, as the emotive issue of high commercial rates for businesses was aired yet again. Independent Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion calling on the county council to rescind fees charged at recycling centres, significantly reduce commercial rates and calling on the Minister for either Finance or the Environment to clarify which specific local services the local property tax is supporting. However, her own voting record was queried by Councillor Patricia McCarthy, who noted that the Derry native had backed increasing the town charge for Shannon from what was originally proposed in the draft budget for 2014. Councillor McCafferty was one of a majority of councillors who last month voted to reduce the town charge from 2.11 to 2.06. However, the original proposal from the council executive had been to cut it to 1.90, before a majority of the members opted to up it, to provide …

KILRUSH town councillor Tom Prendeville has predicted “Armageddon” for business in the town if rates are increased by up to 16.5% from January 1, 2015. Currently Kilrush has the lowest rates in Clare but with the abolishment of town councils likely to go ahead next year, business rates across Clare will almost definitely be harmonised. “What you will find is that more businesses will go to the wall. The result of that will be that rates will probably increase pro rata. Those that survive will have to pay more money to survive. It’s an Armageddon state of affairs for anybody in business in Kilrush if this harmonisation is going to occur, which it will do from January 2015,” he claimed. “The annual rate of valuation in Kilrush at the moment is €61.93 per square foot. That is sometimes refereed to as the general rate. Clare County Council has a rate of €72.99. So if there is harmonisation of the rates …