Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Donovan for raising this important matter. The Government published the Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012 on 3 August 2012 as part of its legislative programme. The main purpose of the Bill is to accelerate the revaluation programme, which is required to take account of the differential movements in property values that have occurred over a prolonged period of time in order to maintain uniformity in the valuation base. Such uniformity is essential in order to achieve the policy objective of ratepayers paying commercial rates on an equitable basis. This, in turn, supports a more competitive business environment and an improved compliance environment. Such a comprehensive revaluation of property has not been undertaken since the middle of the 19th century.

The Bill proposes a number of specific measures in this regard. It provides a statutory basis to enable the Valuation Office to put pilot schemes in place for outsourcing some of the revaluation work and exploring the possibility of introducing an element of self-assessment by ratepayers to the valuation process. There are additional provisions in the Bill that seek to streamline the current valuation process. Each of these will help to speed up the revaluation process. The Bill proceeded through Second Stage in Seanad Éireann in October. Officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and from the Valuation Office have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders and other interested parties on the Bill and potential amendments that may be introduced on Committee Stage.

The programme of revaluing all commercial and industrial properties in the State for rateable valuation purposes is the responsibility of the Valuation Office, which is headed by the Commissioner of Valuation, who is independent in the exercise of his statutory functions, which are principally derived from the Valuation Act 2001. The national revaluation programme was provided for in the 2001 Act and the expectation was that the complete revaluation of all commercial property in the State would take ten years to complete. That has not happened and the assumption has proven to be overly optimistic.

To date, the revaluation programme has been completed in the South Dublin County Council area in 2007, in Fingal and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county councils in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The revaluation of Dublin City Council, the largest in the country, began in May 2011 and will be completed with the publication of a new valuation list in December 2013, which will become effective for rating purposes from January 2014. The Valuation Office is continuing to extend the revaluation programme across the country. The commissioner signed valuation orders for the three Waterford rating authority areas on 12 December 2011 and for Limerick County Council and Limerick City Council on 29 March 2012. The Waterford and Limerick revaluations will be completed in 2013 and 2014 respectively. At that stage, approximately 33% of all rateable properties in the country, representing over 50% of the national valuation base in monetary terms, will have been revalued. The Commissioner has also indicated his intention, subject to a statutory consultation process that is now under way, to sign valuation orders for Galway City Council, Carlow and Kilkenny rating authority areas during 2013.

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