Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2019
551. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the position regarding recent increases in rates bills for businesses in rural County Wexford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17202/19]
View answerThe Commissioner of Valuation is independent in the performance of his statutory functions and the setting of valuations for rating is his sole responsibility. I have no function in relation to decisions in this regard. The Valuation Office is currently engaged in a national revaluation programme, on a phased basis, the first revaluation of that scale, encompassing all rating authority areas, in over 160 years.
The revaluation provisions in the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015 provide a modern statutory framework for the revaluation of all rateable property within a rating authority area so as to reflect changes in value due to economic factors, differential movements in property values or other external factors such as infrastructural changes in the vicinity of a property and changes in the local business environment.
Under the current phase of the revaluation programme, Proposed Valuation Certificates were issued in March 2019 to ratepayers in the Cavan, Fingal, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow rating authority areas. The amount of rates payable in any calendar year is a product of the valuation set by the Commissioner of Valuation and the Annual Rate on Valuation (ARV) decided annually by the elected members of each local authority as part of their reserved functions.
The proposed valuation entered on the Proposed Valuation Certificates is not a bill for rates. It is a statement of the valuation that the Commissioner proposes to set with effect from 1st January 2020. In order to arrive at an estimated rates liability for 2020 and subsequent years, the proposed valuation provided by the Valuation Office would need to be multiplied by the indicative ARV published by the relevant local authority.
Following the issue of circa 32,000 Proposed Valuation Certificates (PVCs) on 15 March 2019, as part of REVAL2019, the Valuation Office held 50 walk in clinics across the eight local authorities being revalued. The location of the clinics took account of the overall number of rateable properties and the distribution of the main centres of population within each local authority area. On 29 March 2019, the Valuation Office issued a further c. 3,500 PVCs mainly relating to licensed premises, hotels, service stations and nursing homes. In advance of that issue, the Office provided specimen PVC documents to the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) and the Irish Petrol Retailers Association (IPRA) and offered to provide briefing sessions to their members. These briefing sessions are now underway and have been arranged in advance of the further walk-in clinics as much as possible. In addition, the Valuation Office has advised the aforementioned trade bodies of the dates, times and venues of additional Walk in Clinics across the eight local authorities. In total, a further 14 Walk in Clinics will take place between now and 25 April.
Having up to date and consistent valuations, reflecting current market conditions, is critical to ensure that the levying of commercial rates is on a fair, equitable and consistent basis across all economic sectors and parts of the country and is the purpose of the national revaluation programme.
In order to ensure that the revaluation promotes equity across sectors and areas, but is also a revenue neutral exercise in overall terms, the Minister may limit the total amount of rates collectable within the local authority in the year following a revaluation to that collected in the previous year, subject to minor adjustments. In overall terms, I understand that of the revaluations conducted to to date, approximately 60% of ratepayers have had their liability for rates reduced and approximately 40% have experienced an increase.
I understand that the Valuation Office has held walk in clinics on 15 and 16 April 2019, in various locations around County Wexford following the issuing of the PVCs. Valuation Office staff were present in each location to answer queries, explain the revaluation process and offer guidance on making representations.
Any ratepayer who is ultimately dissatisfied with any of the particulars on their Proposed Valuation Certificate can submit representations to the Valuation Office within 40 days from the date of issue of their certificate. The closing date for submitting representations is clearly stated on each Certificate.
There is no fee for submitting a representation, which can be made by using the Property Number and PIN on the Proposed Valuation Certificate online on the Valuation Office website, www.valoff.ie. The Valuation Office considers all representations and commits to making merited adjustments based on the information provided as part of the representations process.
There is also available a right of appeal to the independent Valuation Tribunal for ratepayers that are dissatisfied with the final valuation. In the case of the current areas being revalued the final valuation is expected in September with the list to be published in October and the final appeal date in November.
