Government announce commercial rates deferral

Local authorities will defer commercial rates until the end of May for businesses impacted by the Covid19 crisis.

The measure is to ease pressure on the immediately impacted businesses – primarily in the retail, hospitality, leisure and childcare sectors.

Local authorities have been engaging with ratepayers and representative groups, monitoring the impacts at this stage of the COVID-19 response.

Announcing the measures, Minister for Local Government Eoghan Murphy said the Government would support businesses while also making sure local authorities continue their own vital services to the public.

“To facilitate this cash flow support will be made available to assist affected local authorities,” he said.

Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe said small and medium-sized businesses were the lifeblood of towns and villages across Ireland.

“Right now, they are facing unprecedented challenges, not least of which is the speed at which some are feeling the impact and having to pull down their shutters. We want to make sure those shutters can come up again when the time is right.”

Individual local authorities have a long-standing relationship with local businesses and are very well placed to deal with this evolving situation and its impact on ratepayers in their own local authority areas and operating environments.

Any commercial ratepayers that have had to temporarily close or significantly curtail operations during the COVID-19 response period should contact their local authority immediately in relation to any rates payments falling due in the period to end-May. Ratepayers that can continue to pay their outstanding local authority rates should continue to do so in the normal way.