Dún Laoghaire council rejects call to cut business scheme ties

A demand that Dún Laoghaire council should terminate its association with the town’s Business Improvement District Scheme (Bids) has been rejected by councillors.

The demand was supported by People Before Profit councillors Melisa Halpin and Karl Gill. However, it was opposed by 27 other councillors from across all other parties who attended a special meeting of the council on Monday.

It was called because of widespread anger at letters sent on behalf of the board operating Bids by Stubbs, the debt collection agency, to business people in the town who had failed to pay the levy which funds the scheme.

“The Stubbs letter absolutely takes the biscuit,” said Cllr Halpin, an opponent of the Bids scheme, who argued the letter was “bullying” and an “utter disgrace”.

Fine Gael councillor John Bailey claimed the people involved in Bids were “dividing” people through the letter.

“If people owe money,” he said, “there’s a way of dealing with it. A humane way.”

Plebiscite among businesses

The Bids scheme was set up in the spring of 2014 after a plebiscite among businesses in the centre of Dún Laoghaire approved the idea. It is designed to facilitate businesses, in partnership with the council, work to improve the business environment in the town, above and beyond anything the council does funded by business rates.

Bids is funded by levy separate to rates, which the organisation says is less than €200 a year for the majority of ratepayers.

It claims that in the 18 months in which it has been operating, 65 new businesses had started in the town and its 400 members have saved an aggregate of €420,000 a year through a cost-savings initiative.

Bids says that non-payers of the levy were sent two invoices, four reminders and a letter warning of debt collection before Stubbs was engaged.

Many councillors spoke against the use of Stubbs while supporting Bids, and arguing against winding the scheme up.

Fianna Fáil’s Mary Hanafin, who supported Bids, said many some people had a “blame everybody” approach to problem-solving.

Labour’s Carrie Smith said it was too early to write off Bids, adding the “town was falling on its knees” when it was set up.

Cllr Shane O’Brien of Sinn Féin said it was “ironic” that an organisation set up to help business was “damaging business in Dún Laoghaire” by sending the Stubbs letter.