Trevor Sargent
Ceist:338 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the reason a person should pay rates when in a nursing home, when a person does not have to pay commercial rates at home. [14360/97]
Written Answers - Property Rates.
The valuation of all property for rating purposes is entrusted to the Commissioner of Valuation in the Valuation Acts, 1852-1988. Local authorities are obliged to levy rates on all properties in accordance with the details entered in the valuation lists prepared by the Commissioner. Nursing homes are exempt from rates if the buildings are used exclusively for charitable purposes and no private profit or gain results. For the most part nursing homes are rateable because they do not meet these criteria and are, therefore, rateable in the same way as other commercial undertakings. Where nursing homes fall to be rated, the rates liability falls not on the individual patients, but on the undertaking itself. Domestic dwellings were derated under the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1978.