STRUGGLING SMALLER BUSINESSES in Dublin city are being encouraged to contact Dublin City Council for support.  

Ratepayers are encouraged to get in contact about deferring rates payments and restructuring payment plans when needed. They will be treated “sympathetically”, the council said. 

“Ratepayers should contact their rate collector to discuss the matter and agree an appropriate arrangement in these unprecedented circumstances,” said Kathy Quinn, head of finance with Dublin City Council.

Businesses had been asking that those rates be waived, rather than deferred, to help them stay afloat.

Any occupied non-domestic property must pay a commercial rates charge annually to Dublin City Council. 

In a statement, the council said its rates office will “work with” small and medium sizes businesses who have been financially impacted by Covid-19. 

Businesses that can continue to pay their outstanding rates are advised to continue to do so.

“Those that are in a position to discharge their rate payments early are also encouraged to do so in order to support the provision of City Council services,” the council said. 

New data from Dublin Town, a group representing businesses in the city, said that most customer-facing businesses in the city are now closed, except some essential retail services.  

Footfall in Dublin city dropped by 65.8% between last Monday and yesterday, according to Dublin Town. 

Last week, Dublin City Council’s Chief Executive Owen Keegan said that some Dublin businesses can pay their commercial property rates, and should continue to during the Covid-19 shutdown.  

Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, President of the Irish Hotels Federation, had described proposals to defer rates payments as “wholly inadequate” and a futile exercise.