Ms Claragh Mulhern:

What is essential is the provision of clarity on the value of the land in the first instance. One has to work backwards in time to establish what the valuations are. The intention is that next year, based on the dates set out in the general scheme, all planning authorities will be required to publish a map showing the land in scope. The scope is broader than that related to the residential zoned land tax; in the first instance, it is a matter of all land zoned for residential purposes. The authorities will also publish a subset map to target specific landholdings whose owners will be required to submit their self-assessed valuations up front. The reason is that it would be a significant burden for the local authority to do all the valuations at the same time up front. The way it is working is that the landowners will themselves submit self-assessed valuations to the planning authority, and the planning authority will be able to audit those at any time thereafter. The idea is that the planning authority will set up a register. The valuations received from the landowners will sit on the register, unless the planning authority wants to audit them. If there is a disagreement between the two parties on the figure, the matter will go to the Valuation Tribunal, whose outcome will be binding. We hope that as much information as can be published on the valuations will be published and made available, subject to GDPR considerations. That will be very important for transparency around what the obligation will be. That should influence transactions thereafter.