Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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42. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to amend the relevant legislation such that homeowners with pyrite damage below the significant damage certification threshold which have not been accepted into the pyrite remediation scheme but are nonetheless worthless due to pyritic infill can avail of the LPT pyrite exemption. [9879/17]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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This question relates to the property tax exemption for homes affected by pyrite in respect of which the Minister will be aware we had to fight to get an exemption. We had to fight for two years after 2013 to get that exemption improved because under the original scheme a person was required to spend thousands of euro on a test to get an exemption of a couple of hundred euro. The amendment made in 2015 is not fit for purpose. What does the Minister propose to do to ensure homeowners of pyrite affected properties can avail of the property tax exemption?

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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May I ask a question on the same issue?

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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No. I will allow the Deputy to put a question after the Minister has read his reply.

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The local property tax, LPT, exemption is intended to apply to those properties that have a significant level of pyrite damage. While this means that not all properties that are affected by pyrite are eligible for the exemption, it is accepted that the presence of pyrite, whether it has already caused structural damage to a property or has the potential to cause such damage, will have a negative effect on the market value of the property. If the property was affected with pyrite on the valuation date then that can be reflected in the selected valuation band. If a property owner feels that the valuation band selected on the valuation date of 1 May 2013 did not take account of the existence of pyrite then he or she should make contact with Revenue to discuss the possibility of reducing the band.

The Deputy will be aware that the qualifying criteria in respect of exemption from LPT for properties with significant pyritic damage were modified by the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2015 which was signed into law on 20 December 2015. The Act modified the qualifying criteria to include properties where a certificate of damage has been completed by a competent person as set down in the relevant regulations, the property has been accepted into the pyrite remediation scheme operated by the Pyrite Resolution Board, an insurance company has remediated the property or provided sufficient funds to carry out the remediation or, the person who built the property has remediated it or provided sufficient funds to carry out the remediation.

The relaxation of the certification requirement was one of the recommendations made by Dr. Don Thornhill in his review of the operation of the local property tax on behalf of the Government in 2015. The changes are significant in that where a property has been included in the pyrite remediation scheme by the Pyrite Resolution Board, PRB, without testing, or a property has been remediated by a guarantee company or by a builder or developer or where a party is compensated in lieu of remediation, without testing, Revenue will now accept confirmation of remediation or compensation from the either the PRB or the relevant party for the purposes of exemption without testing or NSAI certification.

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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The Minister has addressed the area where the scheme works to give people pyrite exemptions but he has not addressed the question, which is what does he propose to do to improve the areas where the exemption cannot be gained even though the homeowner's property is pyrite affected. The Minister appears to be suggesting in his reply that people could more or less submit a zero valuation and that would be accepted. That is not accepted by Revenue. The terms of the exemption are that a property must have a damage condition rating of 2, or 1 with progression, which means that homeowners with properties affected by pyrite and a damage condition rating of 1, and clearly with pyrite, are not gaining an exemption from the property tax. We have a ridiculous scenario whereby homeowners who suffered in homes affected by pyrite that were later remediated and sold on in perfect condition were unable to get an exemption from property tax for the years during which they lived in the pyrite affected property while the people who purchase the property can get an exemption for a house that is non-affected by pyrite. There are huge problems in terms of application of the exemption.

What does the Minister propose to do for the people who are not currently captured in the scheme even though their properties are valueless and why is there is a ceiling on the exemption? Why is the exemption limited to six or eight years? If a property cannot be certified or remediated and the house is valueless then the homeowner should get an exemption.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I have raised this issue with the Minister previously, at which time he indicated he would ask the Department to examine it. The response received was to the effect that the Minister is not prepared to do anything. This is a growing problem not only in Fingal but across the country. There are people whose homes are effectively valueless yet they have to pay the property tax. I echo Deputy Daly's remarks and I also ask what is the Minister prepared to do for the people who are not currently captured by the current scheme but are in extreme distress?

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I said that I was not prepared to introduce further legislation to change the current legislative parameters but I think progress can be made administratively. As I said in my reply to Deputy Daly, if a property owner believes that the valuation band selected on the valuation date of 1 May 2013 did not take account of the existence of pyrite then he or she should make contact with Revenue to discuss the possibility of having the band reduced. In other words, if the house is worth a lot less than was thought in 2013 then there is an opportunity, with the agreement of Revenue, to declare a new valuation at a very low level and consequently the LPT liability will be significantly reduced if not eliminated completely.

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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I hear what the Minister is saying but that has not been the experience of people who have made that argument to Revenue. It is a self-assessment tax so one would assume that if the property concerned is one that the homeowner is not permitted to sell because it has pyrite the value would be nil and, therefore, there would be no liability. That is what the Minister is telling us today. We will be quoting that back to Revenue and hopefully it will not dispute what the Minister has said. If that was the interpretation that was brought in then many homeowners which have now been told by Revenue to pay up and who had money forcibly deducted would not be in this scenario. I hope that when we quote what the Minister has just said Revenue will implement it. Given that there is a lack of clarity on this issue, it might be best if the Minister would send Revenue a notice reminding it of its obligations in this regard such that any confusion, which undoubtedly does exist, can be avoided.

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I understand the point the Deputy makes. If there is an administrative road block preventing what I expect to occur from occurring I will speak to the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners with a view to having it remediated at an administrative level.