On foot of a number of complaints from local business people about commercial rates in the town being raised, Lismore Town Councillor Jan Rotte said he raised the matter with Waterford County Council only to be told they are not an income- generating source.

“So why are they going up?” he asked town manager Paul Daly.

The town manager explained the county council has very few sources of income at local authority level and commercial rates are one of them.

“We don’t set them, it’s done independently,” he advised.

He didn’t understand why Cllr Rotte was told they weren’t income-generating as they are. He added that rates valuations hadn’t been done in the town in a number of years.

Cllr Rotte asked him to look into the matter to get some clarification on it and the town manager undertook to do so.