"Angry" and "frustrated" business leaders are to consider withholding payment of rates as part of a campaign to highlight inequities in the system.
They claimed yesterday they had become a "soft target" for local authorities seeking to make up for shortfalls in funding from the Exchequer.
Announcing its campaign, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) said its grievance was with the Government, rather than local authorities themselves.
Mr John Dunne, the CCI chief executive, said local authorities had been left with "an impossible" job because of lack of funding. The matter had been exacerbated by the benchmarking pay deal, he said.
The Government had negotiated a pay deal and imposed it on local authorities, and so should have "the guts" to finance it. Instead, local authorities were having to pay the cost of benchmarking from their resources.
Several small business-owners and managers told a CCI press conference how dramatic increases in rates in recent years had affected their enterprises.
Ms Anya Grealy, owner of the Abbey Hotel in Roscommon, said it had been levied rates of €15,659 in 2002. It had since expanded by adding 26 bedrooms (making the total 51) as well as conference rooms and a leisure centre. Management had anticipated a rates increase, but were "shocked" to be hit with a 360 per cent increase, to €56,081, she said.
She did not know what the hotel was getting in return for the payment, as it paid €22,000 last year for water charges and also paid for a refuse-collection service. The hotel provided its own parking.
It had also been charged council planning fees of €13,000 and a development charge of €67,094 for the expansion.
Ms Grealy said it was unfair that hotels had to pay exorbitant rates, while other business such as unregistered guest houses and holiday homes were exempt.
Mr Dunne said the possibility of businesses withholding rates or mounting a legal challenge were among the options.
Businesses were obliged under the 1990 Companies Act, he said, to protect the interests of their staff. Yet, they were being asked to pay rates which would fund public-sector pay increases. These, in turn, might leave them unable to pay increases due to their own employees.
The CCI claims the highest rates are charged by Limerick City Council, followed by Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council, Cork City Council, Dundalk Town Council and South Dublin County Council.
The highest rates increases (1994 to 2003) were by Thurles Town Council (96 per cent), Templemore Town Council (92 per cent), Galway County Council (86 per cent), Nenagh Town Council (84 per cent) and Kells Town Council (83 per cent).
