This article is from page 66 of the 2009-11-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 66 JPG
RETAIL Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the retail sector, has called on all local authorities to cut commercial rates when voting on the matter later this month.
Retail Ireland has written to the Chairperson of every local author- ity as well as all City and County Managers to ask for a reduction of 20 per cent. In addition, the group has written to An Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD, Enda Kenny TD, Leader of Fine Gael, and to Eamon Gilmore TD, Leader of the Labour Party, to request that their councillors support such a move.
Retail Ireland Director Torlach Denihan, said, “Over the last year 30,000 retail jobs have been lost and the sector is struggling to avoid fur- ther redundancies over the coming months. Local authorities must play their part in the retail sector’s efforts to regain lost competitiveness and safeguard employment. As can be seen from the Consumer Price Index released last Thursday, retailers have cut prices aggressively over the last year.
“Over the last decade local authori- ties have been able to fund many projects through development levies and commercial rates paid by the re- tail sector. They now need to act re- sponsibly and help the sector retain
employment in view of the threat posed by the collapse in sales, aggra- vated by cross- border shopping.
‘Since 2000 the annual rate on valuation has increased by a cumu- lative 57 per cent nationally. Last year some local authorities took the incredible decision to increase the annual rate on valuation (Clare 3.8 per cent, South Dublin 3.63 per cent, Fingal 3.5 per cent, Wexford 3.5 per cent and Dublin City 3.35 per cent) despite the fact that the retail sector was in crisis. We are particularly dis- turbed that a revaluation exercise in South Dublin and Fingal is further aggravating the problem, resulting in some retailers facing increases of up to 50 per cent.”