asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if, in view of the dissatisfaction which exists amongst ratepayers because of the tendency of rates to increase from year to year and the many anomalies and injustices in regard to the distribution of the burden of rates, he will introduce legislation reforming the entire rating system.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Reform of Rating System.
I am aware that the present position in regard to rating is, in many respects, unsatisfactory and that anomalies arise from the existing valuation for rating purposes which has been in force in many places for the greater part of a century. The first step for the removal of these anomalies is, as I pointed out to the Dáil when moving the Second Reading of the Valuation Bill in 1939, a revaluation of existing hereditaments. Until the defects of the valuation system have been remedied in accordance with the proposals contained in the 1938 Bill, legislation dealing generally with the existing rating system cannot be undertaken.
Is the Minister not aware that the greatest anomaly which exists in regard to rating is the excessive burden placed on agricultural land as compared with other hereditaments?
That may be. One way of curing that anomaly would be by having the valuation of all the hereditaments of the country which the Deputy opposed when I proposed it.
You ran away from it.
Is the Minister aware that another way of solving the difficulty would be by derating agricultural land, as it has been derated in Northern Ireland and Great Britain?
There is only one right way of dealing with the problem, and that is to start from the foundation.