On page 46 of the programme for Government, there is a reference to the commercial rates Bill and page 136 contains a reference to the regeneration of urban centres. Small retail businesses throughout the country are under serious pressure because over €600,000 is being lost every hour due to illegal trade. A sum of €418 million annually is lost to small indigenous businesses in the Border region. Ultimately, the State is losing out in this regard as a result of unpaid VAT. In addition, there has been a proliferation of web-based companies registering under the .ie domain name and purporting to be of Irish origin. This is leading to further tax avoidance. This lack of competitiveness for retailers is being further exacerbated by the delay in introducing the long-promised commercial rates Bill, which is needed in order to balance the trading obligations of the bricks-and-mortar businesses and those trading online. When I asked about this Bill many months ago, the previous Taoiseach promised that it would be before the House by last Christmas. Will the Tánaiste indicate when the legislation will be introduced?

The commercial rates Bill is priority legislation. I and my officials have had several meetings with the Attorney General in recent weeks to ensure that we can have the draft legislation published as soon as possible. I had hoped that would happen this month but I have assurances that we will have it in June. There is one particular issue we are trying to finalise with the Attorney General before publishing the Bill.