City and county retailers face into 2025 with rates increases after councillors in both local authorities voted in favour of hikes to increase the budgets for services.

Those with a rates bill of up to €50,000 in the county will get a 10% discount – instead of 6% proposed by the finance department – leaving nine in ten of the 4,400 ratepayers facing an increase of €82 a year.

City councillors agreed to upping the commercial rate by 6% for 3,200 commercial premises, bringing in an extra €2.6 million in revenue instead of the €6.4 million that would been netted if they had approved the 15% hike being pushed by the executive.

What affect that will have on retailers remains to be seen.  The website, Open in Galway, lists 60 businesses that opened throughout 2024 while 52 have closed.

Just over half of them in each case are retail shops with the rest cafes, restaurants, pubs or nightclubs and a smaller proportion barbers, hairdressers or beauticians.

Barbers, hairdressers and beauticians are the main businesses that are opening in the centre of Ballinasloe, according to Gerry Stronge, who has had a photography and framing business in the town for decades.

“Seven have opened here in the last while and I’m hearing from our female customers that it’s hard enough to get an appointment at a hairdressers – so they’re busy,” he revealed.

His shop sells laptops, phones as well as cameras and offers a full framing service. He believes footfall in Ballinasloe is holding its own compared to other rural towns but the cost-of-living crisis is impacting on retailers.

“People just don’t have the as much disposable income as they used to,” he admits.

“But what would really help us is free parking. You don’t get a minute’s grace in Ballinasloe, the likes of Roscommon town down the road has free parking. If they could give an hour free so they could come in and do their business, it would make a real difference to businesses in the centre.

“There’s only one warden but you never know when he can appear. Country people won’t pay for parking if they’re only in for a few minutes.”

No businesses have closed in the town during the year, which is a good sign. Having two exits to the motorway, a good bus and rail service, an excellent enterprise centre as well as a decent selection of supermarkets all contribute to that healthy footfall.

“In fact we have three new beauty salons open in the last few weeks. We have five barbers who seem flat out.”

The town could really do with a new factory so that residents were not forced to commute long distances to work in the likes of Galway and Athlone, he opines.

Pictured: Gerry Stronge…Ballinasloe is holding its own.