Brendan Griffin
Question:239. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans for a review of commercial rates for County Kerry businesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47776/14]
View answerTuesday, 16 December 2014
Questions (239)
Written answers
Section 9(10) of the Valuation Act 2001 provides that the Commissioner of Valuation is independent in the performance of his functions. Decisions with regard to the selection of rating authority areas for revaluation is his sole prerogative. Section 19(1) of the said Act empowers the Commissioner to make a Valuation Order specifying a rating authority area over which a revaluation is to be conducted, after consultation with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the rating authority concerned. I, therefore, have no role in selection of the order of counties for revaluation.
The Valuation Office is currently undertaking a systematic programme of revaluing, for rates purposes, all industrial and commercial properties in the State. The immediate objective of the national revaluation programme is to ensure that the first revaluation of all rating authority areas is conducted as soon as possible. Revaluation is conducted across all relevant properties in one or more rating authority areas at the same time. However, implementation of the national programme cannot occur across the entire country simultaneously and the programme must, accordingly, be operated on a phased basis. Following the first revaluation, subsequent revaluations of each rating authority area will then be carried out on a cyclical basis no sooner than five years and no later than ten years after the first revaluation (Section 25 of the Valuation Act 2001).
The purpose of revaluation is to bring more equity, fairness and transparency into the local authority rating system and to distribute the commercial rates liability more equitably between ratepayers. Following revaluation there generally will be a much closer and uniform relationship between rental values of property and their commercial rates liability. In essence, the exercise aims to ensure that each ratepayer bears a fair share of the rates burden relative to the value of the property that they occupy. I should emphasise that while the list of rateable valuations produced and maintained by the Valuation Office is the basis on which rates are levied, the amount of rates to be collected is ultimately a matter for each local authority to decide.