Debate contribution: Unpaid Rates

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 21 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

21 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Unpaid Rates

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5197683

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Like others, I am sure, we will support the motion insofar as it goes. We have no profound issues with clamping down on the level of unpaid rates. That should be obvious. Some Members in their contributions have lambasted, as it were, the LPS and the Department. I will not defend them, but I offer a plea in mitigation: not all — in fact, very few — authorities that collect taxes, rates and revenue target or achieve 100% in the collection of payments. In broad terms, the tax gap in the UK is about 5%, so I do not think that we should assume that not believing that we will get 100% is necessarily evidence of a profound failing by the Department. That said, there is a significant stock of uncollected rates. It has come down significantly from, I think, £180-odd million to about £110 million since we first returned last year and discussed the issue. I have no particular issue in supporting the motion. However, my party and I will make the broader point that the debate is happening in the context of us not taking the power that is at our fingertips. As a progressive centre-left politician and someone who believes in devolution and, ultimately, in the exercise of power on this island rather than from Whitehall in London, I believe that we should take more power over the revenue that we raise and use every opportunity that we have to exploit and maximise the powers at our fingertips in the here and now. To be honest, we simply are not doing that at all. The motion effectively says that we should stretch ourselves a little bit more to collect a little bit more of the revenue that we are owed. That is grand; I have no issue with that. In fact, there are loads of instances of rates reliefs being applied totally inappropriately, including in my constituency. I have mentioned in the Chamber multiple times the preposterous situation in the preposterously named Tribeca site in the middle of the Cathedral Quarter. Properties there have been left to fall into dereliction, but the property owners been given rates holidays by LPS. That was undone only after questions were asked by me and others. When it comes to the powers that we have, we have pressed consistently for more ambition from the Minister on getting more fiscal devolution and local revenue-raising. That is not because we love the idea of taxation for its own sake; it is because we believe in taking responsibility here. In the Chamber, there is a huge amount of blame-shifting and responsibility-shifting. Members say, "Someone in London has to do something" or, "Another party in the Executive needs to do something". Someone somewhere else is always to blame for something. The public want us to take responsibility. I want us to take the ultimate responsibility and build a new Ireland on this island, but, until then, I want the Sinn Féin Finance Minister to explain how he and the Executive will take more power over revenue. At the moment, we have something called a rates "review cycle" over a 10-year horizon. That is completely preposterous. It is preposterous that we are talking about waiting a decade before taking any meaningful steps. I know that the Minister has taken some steps towards changing the rating system. I would like to hear when that is going to be discussed at the Executive. We understood there would be a discussion, last week or this week, specifically on measures to change non-domestic rating and, on domestic rates, early repayment and the cap. Can he give us an update today on whether that discussion is happening and when we are going to get a clear decision? Will that happen in time for the multi-year Budget later this year and therefore for the collection of next year's rates bills? Furthermore, I also ask when we are actually going to get a coherent plan for revenue raising and fiscal devolution in order to meet the challenges in our public services —

— and our economy.

I understand that, Mr Deputy Speaker, but, as Mr Tennyson also made clear, these things are inherently linked. How we raise revenue and the amount of revenue that we have available to spend are inherently linked to the amount of unspent rates. The point that I am making is this: if we want to deliver against a set of priorities, rescue our public services and invest in our infrastructure, we are going to need a plan. We will hopefully have a multi-year Budget and investment strategy at some point this year. We assume, because we hear it constantly in the Chamber — it is right — that London does not give us enough money and that our financing model is broken because we have to go to London for reserve claims and to get our funding. I do not want that in the long term, and I know that the Finance Minister does not want that either, but, in the short and medium term, why do we not take more power here? Why do we not raise more local revenue? Why do we not have a bit more ambition about taking power into our hands? That is a noble aspiration and a practical imperative. Let us hear from the Finance Minister what he intends to do to raise more revenue locally in the short and medium term, and in the meantime, by all means, let us collect the unpaid rates.

923 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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