Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 October 2015
208. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will make provision for the write-down of non-principal private residence charge debt in cases of particular hardship, where the owners are not landlords or gaining an income from a second home, and have not paid the charge by omission rather than through deliberate evasion. [35031/15]
View answer209. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if there have been any write-downs of the non-principal private residence charge late payment penalties. [35032/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 208 and 209 together.
The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, as amended, provides the legislative basis for the Non Principal Private Residence (NPPR) Charge. The NPPR Charge of €200 per annum, which has since been discontinued, applied in the years 2009 to 2013 to any residential property in which the owner did not reside as their normal place of residence.
Under the Act, it is a function of a local authority to collect NPPR charges and late payment fees due to it, and all charges and late payment fees imposed and payable to a local authority are under the care and management of the local authority concerned. In this regard, application of the legislation in particular circumstances is a matter for the relevant local authority.
Under section 77 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014, my Department issued guidance to local authorities concerning matters relating to arrears of the NPPR Charge and late payment fees to ensure that a consistent national approach is adopted. The guidelines, which are available at http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Administration/FileDownLoad,37899,en.pdf, encourage local authorities to take a proactive approach to ensure that any outstanding NPPR liabilities are discharged in the most equitable, efficient and economically beneficial manner and include guidance in respect of dealing with hardship cases. It is expected, in the majority of cases, that local authorities will collect the full NPPR Charge liability from owners. In some cases, this may be by means of arrangement by instalment. All non-compliant owners or owners with queries should log on to www.nppr.ie or, alternatively, contact their local authority to discuss any matters they wish to clarify and to make any outstanding payments.
