'Businesses in Naas are under financial pressure and some will close'

Some businesses in Naas are struggling financially, according to Green Party councillor Bob Quinn. 

He says this is based on the extent of local authority rates arrears.

He said that at the end of last December some 190 businesses were in arrears of less than two years (amount outstanding €833,514) and 38 active rates customers were in arrears of more than two years (amount outstanding €903,921). 

Since then, he added, one sum owed has been paid, reducing the latter figure by approximately €250,000.

“As businesses pay commercial rates, these figures tell us that there are almost 228 businesses in trouble in the Naas area. This number of  businesses in a town the size of Naas represent a large proportion of the traders. 

Not every one of these businesses in arrears is going to close, however some of them will,” he said. 

He said every business closure provides one more reason not to visit the  town “therefore one could argue that failing businesses beget failing towns.”

And because rates finance services provided by Kildare County Council, it means that approximately €1.433m is not available for public services like street lights, roads, footpaths, street cleaning, libraries, waste and recycling, community, arts, housing and all the other services, including public amenities.

Cllr Quinn also said that Poplar Square needs to be properly developed and this could attract more people into Naas to shop. 

“It’s hard to believe that it’s already been four years since the car-parking spaces were removed from the southern side of the square and the less-than- elegant picnic tables were placed there.”

He said while some seating has been installed, nothing has been done “to signal how the space might be used by the community, other than providing somewhere for pub customers or the fast food restaurants to eat and drink on a sunny evening. Surely we have higher ambitions than this.” 

He said Poplar Square should be “a venue for festivals, a pleasant place to stroll through, meet friends in, or sit in and watch the world go by.”

He criticised his fellow councillors for overlooking this while “ringfencing money for other, very expensive projects like Kerdiffstown Park and the development of amenity lands in Sallins.”