Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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In my request to raise a topical issue I included both the list of estates and the pyrite-damaged houses. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for discussion. It is clear that the legislation produced before Christmas and the amending Bill produced after Christmas were hastily passed through the House and in advance of the list of exemptions or before we had an opportunity to talk to the pyrite remediation panel. It was like dynamite when the news came through last week that only about 5,000 houses, substantially below the number exempt from the household charge, would qualify for an exemption from property tax. In my constituency, for example, 17 estates were exempt from the household charge, but only two are exempt from property tax, one of which is a new estate. I estimate that of the 5,000 exempt on the unfinished estates list, only approximately 1,000 will qualify on the pyrite list, judging from what was said at a briefing we had with the Pyrite Resolution Board last week. That is fewer than 6,500 houses in a housing stock, depending on whose figures one takes, of anything from 1.6 million to 2 million units. The 2011 census indicated there were 2 million households. There have been varying discussions about that number, but irrespective of this, it is a tiny number. Most of the estates have remained inactive. The Minister claims that significant progress has been made, yet only €5 million has been expended nationally in making these estates safer. That must be the best value ever achieved.

I visited a number of estates in my constituency last weekend. Some of the residents have to pay management company fees, in addition to the imposition of a property tax. For example, in Beech Park in Leixlip there was no public lighting throughout the winter. In Newtown Hall, Maynooth, the fence around a very large construction site is on the ground and exposed to children. There are houses in Oughterany village, Kilcock that had to be boarded up by the people living there because they were being vandalised. There are holes in the road in the estate. In Primrose Gate in Celbridge the owners of 400 houses have to pay €250,000 in management company fees, yet the residents do not receive services such as street lighting or maintenance works. They have to pay for the sewerage pump station. If there is a fault, they have to call out a private contractor. They also do not receive council services. One must question exactly what they will get in paying property tax. That is what they are questioning.

There must be a revision of the list, as it is inadequate and fails to take account of significant issues such as management companies in unfinished estates.

The number of pyrite-damaged houses that will qualify is limited to approximately 1,000 of the estimated 10,000 houses that were identified in the pyrite panel report. There may well be visible pyrite in some of these houses but the heave has not reached the level that will qualify them for remediation so they will not be exempted. The pyrite action group, which is voluntary, received many calls asking it to clarify what qualifies. It appears that only in cases where houses are seriously damaged will they qualify for an exemption but who in their right mind would buy a house in the full knowledge that pyrite is present? The houses are valueless. That point was to have been considered.

I met a couple of people last week who had paid to have their homes remediated. They took out extra mortgages to do that but they will get no relief from the remediation board and neither will they be entitled to any exemption. Some of those people would also have paid high stamp duty. The issue of natural justice has been lost in all of this. Putting aside the rights and wrongs of the property tax these are serious issues in their own right that probably could have been teased out in a more thoughtful way had we had more time when the legislation was going through the House.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and allowing me to clarify a few matters.

The Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 and Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2013 provide for a number of exemptions from the local property tax. These include an amendment for certain unfinished housing developments and residential properties that have been certified as having significant pyritic damage.

The list of unfinished housing developments eligible for the exemption was compiled by local authorities utilising the categorisation employed for the purposes of the National Housing Survey 2012. Whereas the annual household charge waiver list applied to some 1,322 developments, and approximately 43,000 households, the exemption from liability from the local property tax will apply to 421 developments, or approximately 5,100 households.

The reductions reflect several important changes from the waiver from the household charge. In the first instance, the categorisation was different. The list for household charge waiver used the proxy of a list of developments that were categorised by reference to the level of on-site activity at the time the 2011 survey was carried out and had less to do with the physical character of a development. Moreover, over 20,000 houses theoretically eligible for the 2012 waiver were either not complete, or not occupied.

It is also the case that some - but by no means all - of the developments previously eligible have been improved very significantly through the work of the Government in resolving problems in unfinished housing developments so that they are no longer in such state as to be regarded as seriously problematic. For purposes of preparing the final list of developments to which the exemption from the local property tax would apply my Department asked local authorities to confirm or update the existing list as appropriate. It was a matter for local authorities, in the Deputy's case, Kildare County Council, to decide on the continued inclusion or exclusion of particular developments on the list.

In terms of the exemption for households affected by pyrite, the methodology for the assessment of dwellings to establish significant pyritic damage will be prescribed in regulations which are currently being drafted. To claim an exemption a homeowner will have to obtain a certificate, from a competent person, confirming the presence of significant pyritic damage on the liability date.

The certificate will confirm that a visual assessment and relevant testing of hard-core material has been undertaken. Special arrangements will apply in respect of 2013 and 2014 to facilitate homeowners getting relevant certification to claim an exemption.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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It appears that the local authorities are being blamed but they were given a set of instructions which came from either the Minister or the Government. They did not make up these rules. This is not a local authority-blaming exercise.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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They drew up the lists.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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If one wants to prove that one has pyrite the competent person will be an engineer who will come out and write a report. I have seen the bills for those reports. In some cases they run into a couple of thousand euro. Is the Minister saying that somebody has to spend €2,000 or more, in some cases, to get a report that confirms what is obvious and then claim an exemption that may be significantly less than the amount they have spent on the report? That is just daft. It is a fig leaf for an exemption that people expected. It was expected that people who qualified for the household charge, who were talked into putting their names on the database to claim an exemption from the household charge, would continue to be exempt.

The amount of work done for the €5 million is valuable but very insignificant compared to the overall problems on some of these estates. The Minister has not taken into account the fact that some of these estates have disimproved over the past year. I could bring him to places where the security fence that is supposed to keep people off the building site has fallen over, and show him where lights were off throughout the winter. Those are not improvements. Apart from anything else they are very temporary. This has a direct bearing on the value of the properties. In some cases they are of no value because they cannot be sold. One would want to be mad to buy something that is going to cause problems in the future.

If people have to pay a property tax they must prove that they have paid the household charge. Earlier this year there was chaos because the Local Government Management Agency was not able to prove who had paid and who had not. It admitted to making errors in tens of thousands of cases. This whole project will cause major problems.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I know that Deputy Murphy campaigned against the household charge last year and 73% paid.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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That depends on how many houses are counted.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted once again to be on the side of the silent majority. The Deputy can stay on the side of the negative people who do not want to pay anything for local services through the household charges.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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That is not true.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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That is where the Deputy was.

There was no database whatsoever available last year. It was developed through the implementation of the household charge. We now have 1.2 million people properly registered and there were obviously going to be difficulties and errors. We acknowledge that. When there is no database available and one is being created for the first time there will be difficulties. There will be difficulties about the implementation of this local property tax too until the database is refined and complete. This has been developed by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for the first time in the history of the State.

The 2012 survey was based purely and objectively on the actual state of completion of a development. It expressly included estates the local authorities deemed were in a seriously problematic condition, regardless of whether a developer was on or off the site. This year a clear definition of what was considered seriously problematic included issues such as the installation and commission of public lighting, the provision of a potable water supply the provision of wastewater collection, treatment and disposal systems, an access road to at least base course level including, where required, provision for parking and provision of access to the dwelling by constructed footpath. These are the instructions that local authorities received, including Kildare County Council so the Deputy can take the matter up with it if it left estates off the list that qualified under those criteria. The same goes for every Member.

The exemption for unfinished housing developments has been put in place by way of the list I described last week. The Deputy is advocating that I change that list. If I change that list I will be accused of interfering in a process whereby since 2012 local authorities have been asked to supply the necessary information. The Department cannot micromanage local government and it does not intend to do so. When we ask the local authorities to do a job we expect them to do it. The planning sections have all the information and inspection criteria based on the necessary circular that was sent to them. The earlier categorisation related to the level of on-site activity at the time the 2011 survey was carried out and had less to do with the physical character of the development.

The 2012 survey was based purely and objectively on the actual state of completion of the development. The work carried out by the Government in dealing with the legacy of unfinished estates has been an outstanding success in many instances. Through site resolution and working with the financial institutions and local authorities, there are 50% fewer properties in unfinished developments compared to three years ago, when the first survey was carried out.

Regarding pyrite-affected houses, no one has done more than I have in dealing with this issue, which was put on the long finger by the previous Government. We have identified through the Pyrite Resolution Board the number of houses involved. One cannot expect an exemption unless there is a proven test. We are working with the Department of Finance to ensure regulations are put in place with regard to testing for pyrite in houses, as well as working on a solution to the financial implications of providing this test.