Council needs to work harder on rates collection - Munnelly

Edwin McGreal

Mayo County Council is not doing enough to collect commercial rates from businesspeople in the county.
That was the view of Cllr Jarlath Munnelly, who was speaking in relation to the Local Government Auditor’s Report for 2014 at yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the council.
“We really do need to refocus our efforts on revenue collection. At the minute 75 per cent of rates are being collected. We’re well aware of the times we are living in. It looks like there is a pick up around the county and that is not playing politics ahead of an election,” said the Fine Gael councillor.
“There should be more of an increase in the collection of rates. This is not a case of pursuing money where we cannot get it but there are lots of businesses who went through a tough time and paid their rates and we owe it to them to ensure that those who can pay do,” he said.
Mayo County Council’s Director of Finance Peter Duggan said the council are ‘redoubling our efforts’ on rates collection and added: “Any pound that is on the table we won’t leave after us.”
Mr Duggan also said he wanted to thank ‘all the ratepayers who contribute to pay rates in difficult times’.