This short Bill proposes to alter the present statutory basis of assessing the annual rate demand by Donegal County Council on the urban district of Buncrana.
The cost of services carried out by a county council for the whole county, including any urban districts in the county, is apportioned between the county health district and the urban districts by reference to the effective valuation of each area. The share of each urban district is levied by way of an annual demand made by the county council on the district. A general revision of all rateable property in Buncrana was carried out in 1950 at the request of the Urban District Council. As a result the total valuation of the urban district increased from £7,563 at the 1st March, 1950, to £11,445 at the 1st March, 1951. As no request had been made to the Commissioner of Valuation to have the valuations of property in the rest of County Donegal comprehensively revised, the valuation revision in Buncrana resulted in a disproportionate increase in the county demand on that urban district.
The Local Government (Temporary Reduction of Valuation) Acts, 1954 and 1960, contained provisions designed to ease the effect of the valuation revision on Buncrana. The 1954 Act provided that the 1954/55 county demand would be calculated on the estimated valuation of the town in that year if the general revision had not taken place and only normal increases in valuation had occurred since 1951. This notional valuation was then to be increased each year for county demand purposes by a fixed amount of £330 annually over a ten-year period, at the end of which the normal method of calculating the county demand by reference to the actual valuation would apply. In fact, however, the normal annual increase in valuation between 1954 and 1960 fell substantially below the estimates on which the 1954 Act formula had been devised. To meet the resultant situation, the 1960 Act provided that the county demand on Buncrana was to be calculated in respect of the year 1960/61 on the basis of 70 per cent of the net produce of a rate of one penny in the £ in the urban area. This proportion was to increase by 1 per cent of a penny in each subsequent year until, in 1990/91, the county demand would, as elsewhere, fall to be calculated on the net produce of a rate of one penny in the £.
The present Bill provides for the stabilisation of the basis of assessment of the county demand at 70 per cent of the net produce of a rate of 1d in the £ until such time as there is a general revision of the valuation of the rest of County Donegal. The effect will be to reduce Buncrana's share of the cost of the services carried out by the county council on behalf of the entire county, including the urban areas, to what it would have been if a general revision of valuation had not taken place in Buncrana and to maintain an equitable financial relationship in the future between the various contributing areas in the county.
It is proposed that the new arrangements will come into effect in relation to the year beginning on the 1st April, 1968. The statutory period for the estimates meetings of county councils expires at the end of the present month. It is essential, therefore, for legal reasons, that the Bill should be enacted without delay if the revised arrangements are to apply in respect of 1968-69. The Bill has been promoted at the request of the parties most directly affected—Buncrana Urban District Council and Donegal County Council—and because the legislation is necessary to rectify an inequitable situation. On that basis, I commend it to the Seanad.
