Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 September 2016
662. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his Department will provide funding to address the shortfall from the re-evaluation of rates payable carried out by local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26317/16]
View answerI understand that the Question refers to global valuations of property of utility undertakings carried out by the Commissioner of Valuation.
The Commissioner for Valuation is responsible for valuation matters, including the global valuation of property of public utility undertakings under Part 11 of the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015.
The Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015 come under the remit of the Minister for Justice and Equality. This legislation provides for global valuations of utility undertakings to be carried out by the Valuation Office every five years and entered on the central valuation list. This can result in either increases or decreases to the relevant valuation. In 2015, the Valuation Office carried out global valuations for Gas Networks Ireland, Iarnród Éireann and telecommunications companies BT Ireland, Eircom, Vodafone, Three Ireland and Meteor. In November 2015, the Valuation Office issued a copy of the Valuation Certificate and a schedule setting out the apportioned value for each rating authority to my Department. The previous valuation for these utilities had taken place in 2010. The Global Valuation Certificates showed a reduction in the combined valuations for these utilities. In addition, the reduction in the global valuation of the ESB, following an appeal to the Valuation Tribunal, reduced the rates payable by the ESB from 2016.
The timing of the global valuations in 2015 caused particular difficulties for local authorities as they were published at an advanced stage of the local authority budgetary process. In this regard, my Department engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and it was agreed that there would be a once-off adjustment in support from the Local Government Fund in 2016 to local authorities affected by the global valuations. The additional allocation provided was on an exceptional and once- off basis, solely for the 2016 budgetary period.
The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority. As such, it is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources.
