Retail Ireland, the Ibec group that represents the retail sector, has called on local authorities to give retailers a 10 per cent rebate on their commercial rates bill, “given the very serious challenges the sector is facing”.
The group has written to the chairperson of every local authority as well as to all city and country managers to ask that retailers be given a 10% rebate on last year’s rates bill and to suspend upward revaluations where necessary.
Director Torlach Denihan said: “Over the last year 30,000 retail jobs have been lost and the sector is struggling to avoid further redundancies over the coming months.
Mr Denihan said: “We wrote to the chairperson of every local authority as well as to all city and county managers in November to advise them of the crisis in retailing and to seek their help in saving local retail jobs.
The pay of local authority staff has since been cut by Government and further adjustments are needed to get the economy back on a sustainable footing.”
Every local authority must play its part in the retail sector’s efforts to regain lost competitiveness and safeguard employment,” he said.
