Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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202. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the assistance and supports available to retailers in circumstances in which a local business finds itself in difficulty with rates payments due to years of austerity and a build up of hard core debt and in which the repayment arrangement is in fact placing the retailer further into debt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38653/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Local authorities are required by legislation to levy rates on any property used for commercial purposes in accordance with the details entered in the valuation lists prepared by the independent Commissioner of Valuation under the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015. The annual rate on valuation (ARV), which is applied to the valuation for each property determined by the Valuation Office to obtain the amount payable in rates, is decided by the elected members of each local authority in the annual budget and its determination is a reserved function.

Local authorities work closely with ratepayers experiencing difficulty in the payment of commercial rates. In this regard, local authorities are facilitating the payment of commercial rates by instalments and work with businesses to put in place flexible payment options that reflect capacity to pay.