Commercial rates are to be increased this year by almost half of the local authorities that impose the charge, according to data collected by Chambers Ireland.
The rate increases range from 15 per cent by Galway County Council to 1.8 per cent by Dublin City Council, with 16 of the 31 authorities that impose the charge opting for no increase in 2025, the data shows.
Many of the counties that did vote for higher rates, including Galway County Council, included rebate schemes designed to shelter small and medium-sized businesses from the bulk of the increase.
Local authorities set the rate late each year as part of their budget preparations for the following year. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has not yet received the budget details for 2025 from all local authorities, a spokesman for the department said.
The Chambers Ireland data shows most local authorities that introduced an increase opted for increases of 5 per cent or less. Only Galway County (15 per cent), Cavan (10 per cent), Galway City (6 per cent) and Tipperary (5.5 per cent) introduced increases greater than 5 per cent. Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo introduced 5 per cent increases.
“It was another nail in the coffin, really and truly,” said Emer Murray, of Goyas Café and Bakery, on Kirwan’s Lane, Galway, referring to the city council’s decision to introduce a rate increase.
On December 31st she closed the business she started 33 years ago, because increasing costs meant it was no longer viable. “My heart is broken, it really is,” she said. “But I started doing the sums and I had to say, this is not going to work.”
Of the rates rise and shutting down the business, she says: “It was not the only factor but it was a contributing factor.”
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The city executive wanted to introduce a 15 per cent rate increase with a rebate measure for smaller hospitality and retail businesses, but the council members opted for a much lower increase, with the shortfall in income to be accommodated by cutting back areas of proposed expenditure.
Cllr Eddie Hoare of Fine Gael, a former mayor of Galway, voted against the decision, believing it would have been better to introduce a larger rate increase accompanied by a targeted rebate scheme.
“The fear is that there have been a lot of closures, and our concern is that our rates base might even be reduced, given the fact that a lot of businesses are struggling. I know the feedback we have received has been quite negative in relation to the increase.”
Councils are under pressure from traders to fund investment in the upkeep of towns and villages, while conscious that many businesses are under pressure because of rising utility and other costs.
“The executive gave us a workshop,” said Michael Smith, a member of Tipperary County Council, which voted by a comfortable majority for a rates increase of 5.5 per cent. “It was presented to us by the executive that if the figure being sought was not secured, we would not be in a position to maintain the level of service that we had in 2023 and 2024.”
The council is to earmark money to address vacancy and dereliction in towns and villages, he said. It will put up “matched funding” that will allow it to secure additional funds from central Government under the urban regeneration, rural development and outdoor recreation schemes.
“This is something that is going to be very tangible and very evident right across our towns and villages. In fairness to businesses and trading organisations, they are very conscious that there is huge investment and huge applications being made by the council, for towns and villages, to enhance them and make them grow.”
Finola Armstrong-McGuire, the owner of a drapers in the centre of Carrick-on-Shannon and president of the local Chamber of Commerce, said Leitrim County Council was urged not to increase commercial rates, but nevertheless voted to up the rate by 5 per cent.
“I do understand from the council’s point of view that, in order to draw down funding for a lot of developments and projects that they know will benefit the area, they need matched funding.”
Developments on the edges of Carrick-on-Shannon have lured shoppers out from the centre of the town, she said.
“We are left, like every other town, with seven or eight types of businesses, repeated possibly too often at this stage. The betting shops, the barber shops, the vape shops, the charity and coffee shops. They are very much what we have in our town centre, with some newsagents and grocery stores trying to keep their businesses there as well.”
She said smaller business owners have not been complaining to her as they recognise the council needs to put up money of its own if it is to draw down national and European funding to improve town and village centres across the county.
Many councils have accompanied their rate increases with targeted rebate schemes. In Mayo, where the council voted for a 5 per cent increase, the budget includes an offset for businesses with a rateable valuation of less than €42,500, if they are up to date in their rate payments.
“This means that 90 per cent of ratepayers will not experience any increase in commercial rates in 2025,” according to Anne Conlon, president of the Castlebar Chamber of Commerce.
Some of the additional funds will be used as matched funding for projects across the county, including a major sports facility at Knockaphunta, close to Castlebar, which will receive multimillion-euro support from the Government’s Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund, she said.
A spokeswoman for Galway County Council said the December decision to increase commercial rates was only the second such decision in 15 years.
“The increase will lead to a €2 per week increase in payments for the vast majority – 90 per cent – of the 4,400 rate payers across the county,” she said.
The change will mean Galway County is now more aligned with its neighbouring counties and still in the lower half of the table when compared with other counties on the western seaboard, she said.
“At last month’s annual budget meeting, the elected members also introduced a rate incentive scheme to support small and medium-sized businesses,” she said.
Galway County Council was significantly underfunded due to rising operational costs and expenditure inflation, and this negated the council’s capacity to invest in capital projects, existing infrastructure and day-to-day services, the spokeswoman added.
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