Mr. John O'Sullivan:

The Minister made regulations on 21 December and I signed the valuation order for County Laois on 22 December. There is, therefore, a statutory process associated with it. This was only made possible under the 2015 Act. A new Part was inserted, but effectively on 26 February a lot will be seen because by that stage we will have written to and contacted every ratepayer in County Laois. In advance of that happening, we will have a considerable outreach programme with anybody who wishes to engage with us. Throughout the process we will have walk-in clinics in the county; they will be held one day a week or as often as is required. We have had many discussions and will have many more in the coming weeks with the representative bodies, one of which we met yesterday. We have briefed the local authority staff. We will do whatever it takes to get this right because this is the first time it has been done. It is generating a great deal of interest internationally, including in the International Property Tax Institute and similar bodies, because if it works well, it could result in us being able to conduct ongoing valuation cycles more quickly. We have developed a new website for it, but it is not live yet. We have made a number of videos to instruct ratepayers on how to, for example, measure their retail unit. We ask them to fill in a form online. We give an indicative valuation and the floor area to most ratepayers to help them along the way and they can either choose to accept or go against it. If the floor area is incorrect, they are shown how to remeasure it and correct us in that regard.

There is a small category. Trading data obviously drive many of the valuations. We are doing it a little differently, but they are relatively small numbers. The message very much is that ratepayers will see the first fruits towards the end of February. We propose to issue first draft certificates on or around 12 July which is the other key date. They will have a period in which to make representations to us and we would prefer if they made them online. The cut-off date is 21 August. They will have up to 50 days if they make the representations online. We will issue the final certificates on or around 12 October. We intend to publish the new valuation list for County Laois on 26 October.