Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 July 2013
253. Deputy Ciara Conway asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will list by urban rateable area, broken down by business type and in tabular form, the number of appeals to rate valuations received to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36061/13]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the Valuation Office has been conducting a revaluation of all commercial and industrial properties in the Waterford rating authority areas (Waterford City Council, Waterford County Council and Dungarvan Town Council) and in the Dublin City rating authority as part of its ongoing programme to revalue all such properties in the State. This has resulted in the issue of Proposed Valuation Certificates to the ratepayers in relation to their property. However this process is not yet complete in Waterford as a small batch of outstanding Certificates will issue shortly. Ratepayers may make representations to the Valuation Manager if they consider that the proposed valuation or any details contained in the Proposed Certificate are incorrect. The representation stage is currently under way and will not be complete for some time. Following the processing of the representations to the Valuation Manager, the Final Certificates of Valuation will be published on 31st December, 2013, when each ratepayer in Waterford and Dublin City will have a statutory right to make an appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if dissatisfied with the outcome of their representations. The Valuation Tribunal is an independent body set up to settle disputed valuations between the Commissioner of Valuation and the ratepayers of local authorities. Therefore, it will be early 2014, before the appeal stage is reached in respect of the Waterford and Dublin City rating authorities, accordingly it is not possible to provide the detailed statistical information which the Deputy is seeking at this stage. Under the Valuation Act, 2001, there is also a right of internal appeal to the Commissioner of Valuation. However, legislative proposals are currently before the Houses of the Oireachtas which would result in this appeal being removed. This is one of a number of legislative proposals set out in the Bill. However, it will be a matter for the Oireachtas to determine how such proposals proceed or otherwise.
For the Deputy’s information, three revaluations of commercial property have been carried out to-date in the rating authority areas of South Dublin, Fingal and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and the number of appeals received from ratepayers in each of those rating authority areas is indicated in the following table. As already mentioned, similar information for Waterford and Dublin City will not be available until early 2014.
|
Rating Authority Area |
Number of Appeals to the Commissioner of Valuation |
Number of Appeals to the Valuation Tribunal |
|
South Dublin County Council |
725 (11.5%) * |
227(3.6%) * |
|
Fingal County Council |
819(14.4%) |
100(1.75%) |
|
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council |
1,148(22.2%) |
302(5.84%) |
*% of Revaluations by the Commissioner of Valuation.
