Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. As she is aware, I had initiated a review of the operation of the local property tax, LPT, earlier this year. The review was carried out by Dr. Don Thornhill, who chaired the interdepartmental group on the design of a local property tax in 2012. While Dr. Thornhill's current review focused mainly on property price developments, it also considered and made recommendations on a limited number of other issues relating to the efficient and effective operation of LPT. I considered it appropriate that Dr. Thornhill's review included the operation of the pyrite exemption for local property tax.

It was made clear during the passage of the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act in 2013 that the exemption would be restricted to properties with significant pyritic damage and that not all damaged properties could avail of the exemption. Regulations made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in relation to testing, certification and the NSAI protocol were published in May 2013 and these restricted the LPT exemption to properties with significant pyritic damage where such damage had been proven by the appropriate testing and subsequently certified.

Before its establishment, it would have been envisaged that the Pyrite Remediation Board, PRB, would have remediated those properties that would have qualified for a LPT exemption and that the requirement to have the level of pyrite damage verified and certified would be a precondition for remediation. However, it transpired that only properties with a damage condition rating of 2 are being accepted for remediation by the PRB. Also, I understand the PRB is not testing and certifying all properties that are being remediated. That gives rise to two issues - first, properties with a damage condition rating of 1, with progression, are not being accepted for remediation by the PRB and, second, not all properties that are accepted for remediation are tested and certified. A property owner who might have only a damage condition rating of 1, or 1, with progression, established by a second test, and who wants to claim the LPT exemption, has to spend €1,500 to €2,000 on testing and certification. Properties with a damage condition rating of 2 are accepted for remediation but are not eligible for the LPT exemption unless they have the required certificate.

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