BUSINESSES IN DUBLIN City Centre have voted to retain DublinTown, the organisation that operates the capital’s Business Improvement District (BID), for another five years.

Out of 2,500 eligible businesses, just over 1,200 took part in the plebiscite on the future of the scheme, ballots for which were posted out last month. The motion to renew the initiative was carried by a margin of just over 60% in favour to 40% against with 733 business owners voting in favour and 476 voting against.

A total of 1,242 ballots were cast, 33 of which were declared invalid by returning officers in Dublin City Hall this afternoon.

Set up 15 years ago, the BID scheme obliges over 2,500 Dublin businesses to pay a levy equivalent to 5% of their council rates bill. Membership of the scheme is mandatory for businesses in the catchment area.

A plebiscite of businesses is held by Dublin City Council every five years to determine if the scheme should be retained.

The 5% levy is collected by Dublin City Council on top of rates and is passed onto the not-for-profit Dublin City Centre BID Company, which operates as DublinTown, an organisation that promotes the city centre through initiatives like the Dine in Dublin.

DublinTown also lobbies on behalf on businesses and supports Dublin City Council services like graffiti cleaning and the installation of Christmas lights.

Directors of the company include Bewleys Grafton Street owner and current DublinTown chairman Cól Campbell; Padraic O’Kane, owner of Fire restaurant at the Mansion House; and Peter Hyland, group chief executive of Carroll’s Irish Gifts.

For those in favour of the scheme, today’s result compares favourably with the results of the last plebiscite in 2017 when just 54% of members voted to keep the scheme up and running after fierce criticism by some members.

At the time, the ‘No to Bid’ campaign was spearheaded by independent Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn and Restaurants Association of Ireland chief executive Adrian Cummins.

The campaign once again called for a ‘no’ vote in this year’s plebiscite. On social media and on its website, it has criticised the BID levy as a form of double taxation on top of council rates and accused the company behind DublinTown of a lack of transparency.

In a statement this afternoon, a spokesperson for DublinTown said, “We note the endorsement provided by the business community in the democratic vote to renew DublinTown for a further term. 

“It has been a pleasure to serve our 2,500 members over the past five years and we very much look forward to continuing our work on their behalf.  Dublin city centre has it’s challenges and it’s now time for all businesses and stakeholders to come together and work for the benefit of the city centre, all Dubliners and visitors.’’

The ‘no’ campaign has been approached for comment.