Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Public Accounts Committee
Vote 25 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government
Chapter 6 - Land Aggregation Scheme
Chapter 7 - Matters Arising from Audit of Vote 25 - Environment, Community and Local Government in Relation to Water Services
10:00 am
Ms Maria Graham:
There are two aspects to that. The €11 billion is based on the local government accounting code for how assets are reflected in the local authority account. Many of the assets would not have been revalued over time and they were inserted on an historical basis. Not all of them have a value for rateable valuation purposes. That explains why some local authorities were not charging themselves rates on their own assets. When the assets move to Irish Water, from a commercial point of view, a view will be taken on what the value of those rates will be under international financial reporting standards, IFRS, rules. That may mean that the assets are closer to the process described by Deputy Fleming.