Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and I established a committee to review the local property tax. As this is a tax, it is a matter for the Minister for Finance but because it is a local property tax the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government has a significant say in how it might be redesigned, if it is to be redesigned. This piece of work has commenced. In parallel to that, my Department is reviewing the baseline and the redistribution of local property tax to the different local authorities. I recognise that some local authorities are having difficulties and that some of them think the manner in which the baseline is calculated is unfair. It is more than likely that we will not move away from the principle of a redistribution of rates from particular local authorities to others to help those that have a lower density of housing, but we will look at new criteria for the calculation of a baseline taking into account the differences between local authorities, including the length of a coastline for which a local authority has responsibility, populations and so on. The departmental review will look at how the baseline is calculated with a view to improving it while ensuring that no local authority is worse off as a result of a recalculation of how we achieve a baseline.