IFA seeks tax breaks for rural businesses

Tax incentives should be introduced to stimulate businesses in the towns and villages of rural Ireland, the IFA has said.

In a document released to coincide with the Dublin Horse Show, the IFA proposed double tax relief on rental expenditure and concessions on commercial rates to aid villages and towns decimated by the recession.

Tax credits should be introduced to encourage employers to take on apprentices and create sustainable employment in rural communities, it said.

It also proposed giving start-ups incentives such as exemptions from rates for an initial time period and relief from capital gains tax to encourage innovation and enterprise in rural communities.

IFA president Eddie Downey said the tax incentives would be different from the ones given to the building of rural housing during the boom which led to a proliferation of ghost estates.

Mr Downey said the IFA proposals are centred on sustainable job promotion rather than on building houses for which there is no demand.

“We want to bring the life back into rural Ireland,” he said. “Let’s see how we can be inventive where we can get incentives to bring premises up to a standard that businesses can move into. We need to have a balanced not a two-tier recovery.”

Ghost estates

“If we have proper jobs for people in those areas, we will fill those ghost estates.

Mr Downey said Government proposals to bring broadband to every part of Ireland was “absolutely critical” to ensuring the long-term viability of rural Ireland.

"We got great roads out of the Celtic Tiger, now we need to deal with the next part of our infrastructure which is high speed broadband," he said.

A Policy Charter for Rural Ireland also calls for new guidelines on rural housing.

The current guidelines are 10 years old. They must be redrafted and put on a statutory footing, obliging local authorities to grant planning permission to families who wish to live and work in local communities, the IFA said.

It also calls on the Department of the Environment to reduce the cost burden involved in one-off houses.