Monaghan Municipal District attempted to charge a town centre business €10,000 to have outdoor dining at its premises. A revised bill of €4,600 was agreed by councillors but some in the chamber argue this is still too much to charge struggling hospitality businesses who are trying to add value to their offering and town centre tourism.
Nationally, outdoor charges have been scrapped and just last week, Carrickmacross-Castleblayney Municipal District agreed to follow suit. During the last Monaghan MD meeting the council executive pointed out that two car parking spaces had to be removed to allow the Monaghan Town business in question to install outdoor dining tables and chairs. Over the six-month summer season this equates to a loss of €1,400 to the council.
The council spends revenue it receives from car parking charges on Rossmore Park, promoting the Town Team and other incidentals and most councillors voted on and agreed a revised bill of €4,600 for the business. Fine Gael Councillor David Maxwell was one of two councillors who objected to even the reduced charge and says such exorbitant charges is putting local hospitality businesses off from expanding into outdoor dining. "I think there's four or five businesses who could do this around the town and y'know if they're sitting watching this and looking to see what Monaghan Municipal District are looking at charging to allow a business to put tables and chairs outside their business they're going to say ' hang on business is hard enough making a few pound without extortionate charges being applied," Cllr Maxwell said, "For the days that are good, it lifts people's spirits, it allows people to go out and have a coffee, get something to eat and sit outside. We need to, I suppose, cop on about how we're applying charges in the Monaghan Municipal District."
