DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL is on the verge of adopting new policy which would allow it vary commercial rates for businesses in the capital.

A unanimous vote on new measures passed by city councillors last night could pave the way for a more equitable system of valuation for Dublin’s struggling business owners.

The city has seen countless amounts of start-up companies and long standing institutions shut their doors citing commercial rates as one of the many  financial burdens that pushed them under.

Businesses in some of the more dilapidated parts of the city have also questioned the services they receive from the local authority in return for the rates they pay.

Fianna Fail Councillor Paul McAuliffe said he  tabled the motion at last night’s council meeting in the hope it would give the local authority the power to radically vary commercial rates.

“The current rates system, I believe, is a blunt instrument which levies a single commercial rate on all rate payers regardless of size,” McAuliffe said.

“The council is in many ways merely the collector of the commercial rate and has no current power to put in place an imaginative scheme of rates which could reflect the priorities of the council.

The current rates system, I believe is a blunt instrument which levies a single commercial rate on all rate payers regardless of size. The council is in many ways merely the collector of the commercial rate and has no current power to put in place an imaginative scheme of rates which could reflect the priorities of the council.”

Currently, if a premises is empty the council provides a 50 per cent discount to landlord but under new plans the local authority could offer a similar discount to a start-up company in its first year of business.

Check out the rate your local business is paying over at the Valuation Office’s online search.

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