Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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11. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to revise the valuation system to provide for a fairer basis for commercial rates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2677/14]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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A serious discussion is needed on commercial rates. The Minister will be aware that serious difficulties that arose in Waterford are being replicated across the country as the rates revaluation process is rolled out nationwide. Businesses do not have the ability to meet the demands being placed on them. The purpose of Question No. 11 is to ascertain the Minister's views on the issue.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 18 and 28 together.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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On a point of order, as the Deputies who tabled Questions Nos. 18 and 28 are not in the House, we should not take the questions together but should confine the slot to six minutes in order that we can move on to questions tabled by those who are present.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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If that is the wish of the House, is it agreed to? Agreed.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Government published the Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012 as part of its legislative programme. The Bill proceeded through Second Stage in Seanad Éireann in October 2012. Let me state the Bill will not change the basis of valuation for rating purposes. This will continue to be net annual value, NAV, the hypothetical rental value of a property as assessed by reference to a specified date. This is a long-standing principle of the rateable valuation scheme in Ireland and ensures equity and fairness in the values of commercial and industrial properties across local authorities.

The main purpose of the Bill is to accelerate the national programme of revaluing every commercial and industrial property in the country which is being undertaken by the Valuation Office, as the Deputy stated. The Bill amends several provisions in the Valuation Act 2001. These amendments include a number of technical changes to Part 5 of the 2001 Act which deals with how valuations, including revaluation of entire rating authority areas, are carried out. The Bill also proposes to amend Part 6 which deals with the carrying out of revisions of the rateable valuation of individual properties within rating authority areas.

I am mindful of the concerns and have met people from Waterford regarding this matter. The difficulty is that there has not been a revaluation in such a long period of time. We need a quick and expeditious revaluation, regular valuation after this and a robust appeals process to ensure that where anomalies arise, they are addressed.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I accept that there has not been a revaluation in some time, but in 2013 the rates for one business in Waterford were €2,963. In 2014 this figure will increase to €7,647, a difference of 158%. For another business the amount payable was €4,373, which will increase to €10,080, an increase of 131%. One gets nothing for this any more because one must pay extra for water, the refuse service and in car parking charges. One cannot ask a business to sustain this increase. The business community does not understand the process or how the Valuations Office has reached these new NAV amounts. Transparency needs to be improved. Appeals take more than 12 months to complete and they involve delays and hassle. We have tried to curtail costs in many areas of business, but this is a cost over which businesses have no control and for which they get nothing in return. They face increases of 158% and 131%. A survey of 60 businesses in Waterford showed the average increase was 62%.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy will only hear complaints from those who properties have been valued upwards, not downwards. There is an anomaly in the case of people who maintain a high rate of valuation which cannot be justified. One cannot collapse everybody down because that would hollow out the rateable base of the local authorities and impoverish them. I will give specific examples. In south County Dublin 49% of ratepayers had their rates reduced, while 39% had them increased. In Fingal County Council 65% were reduced, while 30% increased. The Ceann Comhairle might be interested to hear that in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown 54% were reduced, while 46% were increased. We need a balance. The dilemma was that there had not been a revaluation for so long. We had anomalies whereby the properties of some businesses were completely overvalued in the current climate, while some were completely undervalued. Migrating to fairness is difficult because those whose properties have been revalued downwards want immediate action, while those whose properties have been revalued upwards-----

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I accept that there are some winners, but there are many losers also. Businesses cannot afford to lose at this stage. I wish to come back to the point on transparency on how the NAV is reached in various areas. Does Minister have plans to increase staff numbers in the Valuation Office, particularly to deal with appeals?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We have halted the Bill to engage in extensive consultation. We have engaged in more consultation on this legislation than on any other legislation with which I have been charged since coming to office. It is in the Seanad and it is my intention to bring it to this House during this session when we will be able to answer all of these questions in detail. There is no simple solution because we are trying to address an historical legacy in terms of inaction in this area by having a proper rateable valuation system, including self-assessment and independent evaluation spot checks to ensure it is reasonable. We also want to have a robust and transparent appeals mechanism. It is my intention to put this in place.