John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 87:

In page 24, to delete lines 13 to 16 and substitute the following:

“28. (1) Any charge in respect of—

(a) the local financial year in which the transfer day falls, or

(b) any preceding local financial year,

that, immediately before the transfer day, was due and payable to the county council shall, from the transfer day, continue to be due and payable to the county council unless the city council and the county council agree otherwise.”.

This amendment seeks to replace subsection (1) of section 28. While it is mainly a drafting change, it also allows the two local authorities to agree an alternative to the default position whereby existing arrears of the main revenue sources remain payable to the county council if such an agreed alternative suits them. Similarly, amendment No. 88 again allows the two local authorities to agree an alternative to the default position, whereby the main revenue sources remain payable to the county council in respect of all of 2019, if such an alternative suits the two local authorities. Amendment No. 89 inserts a new paragraph (b) into subsection (3) to include entry year property levy within the provision.

As I understand amendment No. 91, its purpose is for the mortgage debt of housing loan recipients in the relevant area and associated loan repayments to remain with the county council. We were discussing this earlier. I do not propose to accept this amendment because the normal arrangement that applies to a boundary alteration is that the housing loans and all associated management of those files will transfer across to the new local authority, in this case the city council. It is the city council that will receive the subsequent repayments and will also deal with any consents to resale that might arise in the future.

The Bill provides that assets and liabilities will transfer to the city council on the transfer day and that repayments are payable to the city council from 1 January of the following year. The liability owed to the Housing Finance Agency associated with the mortgages for the properties will transfer from the county to the city as will the income stream which will offset the debt owed to the agency. There is not going to be any change to the term or tenure of the mortgage holders. It would be unusual to change the position in respect of transferring the liability along with the asset. For that reason, I will be opposing this amendment.