Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 May 2019
205. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government his views on the connection between small business owners in Fingal being notified by the Valuations Office of a reduction in the valuation of their premises from 2020 and within days notification from Fingal County Council of a significant increase in their AVR from.150 to.191, negating the relief small businesses received from the reduced valuation. [22143/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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.
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 1 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.
The Fingal County Council rating authority area is undergoing a second revaluation in 2019, having initially been the subject of a revaluation in 2009. The new valuations for Fingal County Council will be published on 17 September 2019, and become effective for rates purposes from 2020 onwards.
Given that the process of a revaluation involves both an adjustment to valuations and an adjustment to the Annual Rate on Valuation (ARV), local authorities notify ratepayers of an indicative ARV, when proposed valuations are issued to ratepayers, in order to help contextualise their proposed valuation and estimate their potential rates bill. The actual ARV is decided by the elected members of each local authority in the annual budget and its determination is a reserved function.
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 area in the year following a revaluation to that collected in the previous year, subject to minor adjustments.
