Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. My county, Dublin Fingal, went through the revaluation process some years ago. I know how traumatic and frightening it can be from some business people when they receive a letter in the post telling them their rates are to go up by a dramatic amount. There is, as the Deputy noted, an appeals process. I encourage anyone who has had a valuation changed to avail of that. A lot of people find that the amount comes down on appeal.

It is important to point out that when the revaluation is done, it is on a revenue-neutral basis. Some people are winners and see their valuations down. Others are losers and see their valuations go up. In Kerry, for example, valuations are going down for two thirds of businesses and going up for one third. Understandably, as politicians, it is the one third who are seeing an increase that we hear from and not the two thirds who are seeing a decrease. As the Deputy pointed out, when some people get the letter in the post they do not apply the 0.227 multiplier so there is an initial shock because they believe they will see a huge increase in their rates. Then, when they do the calculation they find that is not the case. I agree with the Deputy. I do not see why the Valuation Office cannot do that calculation. It is pretty straightforward and I think it should do that. The matter was raised by Deputy Griffin at a meeting not long ago. I will make contact with the Valuation Office, on behalf of Irish businesses, to ask it to do exactly that. It is a simple thing and it should be doable.

There are walk-in valuation clinics in Kerry all this week - they are in Dingle and Kenmare today, for example - where business owners can go in, talk to a human being and have this worked through and discussed.

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