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A group of protesters have hosted a "game show" outside Stormont as they called for the Finance Minister to scrap the Rates Exemption for 'Big Businesses'. This comes as a petition containing more than 3,000 signatures was presented in the Assembly chamber on Monday by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll. “John O’Dowd’s Big Business Giveaway” involved a caricature of Minister John O'Dowd rewarding some of the largest manufacturers in Northern Ireland with massive financial giveaways in rate exemptions through the spin of a prize wheel. Industrial Derating provides up to a 70 per cent for around 4,000 manufacturing premises operating in Northern Ireland. Figures obtained by the campaign group Act Now, which organised the demonstration, uncovered that businesses, including Caterpillar, Coca-Cola and Kingspan, have benefited to the tune of millions of pounds in rates exemptions since 2011. Act Now pointed out that Northern Ireland is the only region in the UK that maintains an Industrial Derating policy and said that the policy was abolished in England and Wales in 1963 and Scotland in 1995, while in 2003, Stormont promised to phase out the derating policy following a public consultation, but it remains in place. Roan Ellis-O’Neill from Act Now said: “It is time for John O’Dowd to take action and end these giveaways once and for all. He says that he can’t change the rates exemption policy because it would affect small businesses here. "But he is the Finance Minister after all, with powers to make all sorts of changes to the rates system. He can end these giveaways for businesses with multi-million pound profits without it affecting small businesses here. "This is a political decision - one where Minister John O’Dowd is siding with big businesses, some of which are actively complicit in and profiting off the genocide in Gaza.” The Department of Finance have been contacted for comment. For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our politics newsletter here.
