John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Dowds and I expected our amendment to be ruled out of order because it put a financial charge on the State. I thank the Minister and his officials for dealing with our amendment and the variation that has resulted from the amendment we tabled. The reason we tabled an amendment was very simple. We both had spoken to local government officials who were being placed in an invidious position. In many cases, they approached us and told us that while they really should not be writing off any arrears on rates, they could not afford not to. They needed to keep money moving within the local economy and while on the one hand they endangered themselves because the local government auditor could have told them that what they were doing was completely wrong, on the other hand they believed themselves to be in no position to try to stop sales or leaseholds from going through because there were arrears of rates on particular properties. There is a sense of inevitability about this clause and this amendment the Minister has introduced today. For a long time, local government officials have been anxious to deal with this issue because they did not wish to hold up a sale or a leasehold.

However, there is a flip side to this, namely, that approximately €300 million to €400 million is owed in arrears at present. In this context, the Minister must keep an eye on officials and there must be checks with regard to the writing off or writing down of arrears, once this provision goes through. It is a matter about which I have spoken to the departmental officials and obviously, the State must be conscious that a significant change is being enacted into law as a result of this amendment and that it requires monitoring. The reasoning as to why arrears are being written down from henceforth by local government officials must be examined. Again, there is an inevitability about this. The key point for Deputy Dowds and me was that many parts of the country are going through desperate economic times and in some cases, the arrears on a particular premises were holding up its sale or leasing and this needed to change. The reason for this is that local government officials were going by the book, which did not make sense. I am glad the Department and the Minister have examined this issue and the change has taken place.

The Minister mentioned devolution when responding to a number of Members and I note that one criticism, which I had come across in the past year, has been addressed holistically in this legislation, which is that local authority officials really believe the Valuation Office does not listen to them. The officials do not believe that the office takes into account the local knowledge they possess and when contact or communication is made, by and large the Valuation Office invariably tells them that it is none of their business. There is a weakness in the system but as far as this legislation is concerned, it deals with it. For the first time, it actually hands back discretion, to a great extent, to the local authority officials and councillors, which is a good thing. It is a start and is a significant step towards shifting the balance from Dublin to the local authorities, wherever they may be.

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