A ‘carrot and stick’ approach has helped Limerick City and County Council reduce the amount of overdue rates owed to the local authority.
The vast majority of the arrears has been accumulated by small businesses whose yearly bill is less than €5,000.
Councillors were given a briefing by the council’s rates collection team on rates, who is paying and who is not at their regular monthly meeting on Friday last.
And for the first time in several years, they were told that the arrears were coming down.
Arrears owed at the beginning of 2015 amounted to almost €25 million and this had been reduced to €21.4 million by the end of last year with more than a third of the money outstanding due from the retail sector.
The council is working with people who are behind in their payments and an early engagement team is being set up to interact with new businesses to help them get off to a start and not fall into arrears.
A scheme which gives rate payers a discount for paying on time is proving effective and it is also now possible to spread payments over the year.
Cmhlr Séighin Ó Ceallaigh, (SF) said that he hoped that the smaller struggling businesses would be supported in trying to meet the bills.
“These are the businesses who struggled to keep people in employment during the hard times, providing jobs and local services. They need support not pressure,” he told the meeting.
Officials said that they “will go down the legal route” with business owners who do not engage with them.
