Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 299:

In page 181, after line 29 to insert the following:

“CHAPTER 4

Amendment of Valuation Act 2001

Definition

249.In this Chapter, “Act of 2001” means the Valuation Act 2001.”.

Amendment No. 299 is a technical amendment to provide for the reference to the Act of 2001 in the chapter, viz. the Valuation Act 2001. Amendment No. 300 removes the terms "making a rate" and "rate made", and replaces those terms with "levying a rate" and "rate levied", which conform with the wording of section 4 of the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019.

Amendment No. 301 provides that amendments to the valuation list have full force from the relevant date during the year, and that potential consequential overpayments or underpayments of rates are dealt with by the rating authority. This amendment of section 38 of the Valuation Act 2001, which deals with decisions of the valuation tribunal, the High Court or the Supreme Court, allows for decisions from those bodies having full force from the appropriate dates and allow that rating authority to deal with the consequential overpayment or underpayment of rates. This would be consistent with the actions to be undertaken by the rating authority on foot of notification of the outcome of provisions of valuation during the year. This already happens in practice, and this amendment intends to provide a legal basis for doing so.

Amendment No. 302 reinstates the temporal link that was inadvertently moved from the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019, such that Tailte Éireann issues a notice from section 53(12) of the Act of 2001 at the same time as the copy of the global valuation certificate. In amendment No. 303, rate limitation orders are legally required to be made in October and November of this year as part of the revaluation programme being undertaken by Tailte Éireann.

The Valuation Acts, 2001 to 2015, provide a comprehensive valuation of all commercial and industrial property in the State. The Valuation Office has been undertaking this process for some years and revaluations have been completed in 23 of the 31 local authorities to date. Tailte Éireann has confirmed that revaluations for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, DLR, which is a third revaluation, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Mayo county councils, as well as Galway City Council, which are first revaluations for these six west coast authorities, are due to be completed this year and will be effective from 2024. Rate limitation orders are required to be made for each of these seven local authorities in the second half of the year.

The amendment to section 56 is a transitional provision required to cater for the fact that the seven local authorities to which the rate limitation orders will apply will not have determined their annual rates on valuation, ARVs for the preceding year, which is this year, 2023, pursuant to section 3. Those local authorities determine their ARVs for this year pursuant to section 103(7) of the Local Government Act 2001. The situation will only arise this year and will not impact rate limitation orders being made in future years.