From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Countless hospitality businesses in Galway City will ‘go to the wall’ due to devastatingly high commercial rates bills.

A meeting of Galway City Council heard that following a review of the rates by the Dublin-based Valuation Office, some businesses were facing up to a seven-fold increase in their bill in January 2024.

At the same time, the City Council is scrambling to prepare for a potential collapse in its rates income – money that funds two-thirds of the local authority’s annual spend.

Despite an increased cost for many businesses, the Council will receive no additional funding as a result – revaluation rules state that the amount collected following the review cannot exceed the previous year’s total, meaning while some business owners will face an increase, others will have a reduced cost.

Mayor Clodagh Higgins (FG) said business owners were in a state of “horrendous anxiety” and warned “there’ll be no business left if we don’t press the brakes”.

Cllr Peter Keane (FF) blasted the review which he said was arbitrarily targeting the hospitality sector.

“One licensed premises in the city is going from €25,000 per year to €167,000. A second premises is going from €14,000 to €69,000.”
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, and support our journalism, see the November 11 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.