Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Local authorities are under a statutory obligation to levy rates in respect of any property used for commercial purposes in accordance with the details entered in the valuation lists prepared by the independent Commissioner of Valuation under the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015. The Commissioner of Valuation has responsibility for valuation matters, including the revaluation of properties, and is independent in the performance of his functions under the Acts. The levying and collection of rates are matters for each individual local authority.

The Valuation Acts provide for the revaluation of all rateable property within a rating authority area so as to reflect changes in value due to economic factors such as business turnover, differential movements in property values or other external factors and changes in the local business environment.

It is not the purpose of a revaluation to increase the total amount of commercial rates collected by local authorities. Indeed, section 56 of the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015 provides that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, having obtained the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, is obliged to make an order directing a rating authority to limit the overall amount of income it could raise through rates in the year following a revaluation to the total amount of rates liable to be paid to it in the previous year, plus buoyancy arising from valuations determined in the year of a revaluation of newly constructed property, and adjusted for inflation as measured by the consumer price index. Rate limitation orders have been made in each of the local authorities in whose areas revaluation exercises have been carried out up to now and further orders will be made in respect of future revaluations as they arise.

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