Results 2,821-2,840 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: In the spirit of co-operation I am delighted to have the opportunity to respond to the Senator. As I outlined to the House in our debates on Committee Stage of the Bill, my officials have been engaging in a constructive manner with the Irish Hotels Federation regarding its concerns. Although I believe these concerns are addressed adequately in the legislation, I asked the federation to make...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This amendment provides the commissioner, his officers or persons acting on his behalf with powers to serve a notice on other parties who may be in a position to supply information on a property that enables him to carry out his functions under the 2001 Act. Heretofore this compellability was confined to owners or occupiers, whereas a significant number of other parties, including property...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This amendment is technical in nature and its purpose is simply to improve the wording of the Bill. It tidies up the original wording but there is no difference in intent from the Bill as originally published.

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Reilly for the amendment. The amendments to section 47 contained in the Bill were technical in nature and provided that those acting on behalf of the commissioner on a contracted basis also had the power to enter a property should it be required. In practice, this power is rarely used by the Valuation Office, which cannot recall an instance in recent years where it has been...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This amendment reverses the amendment to section 48(1) and the insertion of section 48(1)(a) that were included in the Bill, as initiated. Amendment No. 10, which has been agreed, amends section 13 of the Act to accommodate what was originally intended in the Bill. Moving the amendment to section 13 takes account of concerns raised about the commissioner dictating the method through which a...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This is a technical amendment. Section 50 of the 2001 Act involves the use of a method of valuation known as the contractor's method, which relies on the notional cost of constructing or providing a property. When employing this method the net annual value equates to 5% of the aggregate costs, depreciated where appropriate, of the property in addition to the site value. This amendment...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Quinn and other speakers for their contributions on this matter. The very purpose of the Bill is to speed up the process of valuation and revaluation in order that retailers, suppliers, owners, occupiers and others who find themselves in a premises with an unfair valuation know that the premises will be revalued quicker than is currently the case. This general principle runs...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: In line with e-government policy encouraging the use of online approaches in delivering public services, the amendment is being inserted as a convenience to the public. It provides for the central valuation list specifying the global valuation of a public utility undertaking to be made available for inspection elsewhere other than at the office of the commissioner, which was the only option...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: It was the Government's intention that, as part of the establishment of the new Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, all land and buildings previously held by the Minister for Finance would transfer to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. To this end, the functions under the State Property Act 1954 were transferred by Statutory Instrument No. 418 of 2011 and property...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: Section 63 of the 2001 Act confers an assumption of correctness on a valuation list in that the value of a property, as entered on a valuation list, is deemed to be correct. The proposed amendment is a technical one which clarifies that section 63 applies to an existing valuation list as well as to a valuation list. It arises from a possible oversight in the 2001 Act and is merely to...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This amendment facilitates the appointment of an agent by the occupier of a property for the purpose of receiving a certificate, notice or other document under the Act. The amendment recognises that a significant number of property occupiers or owners retain agents to represent their interests when interfacing with the Valuation Office on valuation business. The amendment also proposes the...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This is already the practice for the Revenue Commissioners which have relevant market data. One must remember that the entire purpose of the valuation is to determine what would be the notional rent derived from a property on which the Revenue Commissioners could and, from time to time, would have information. By inserting this amendment concerning data sharing, we are putting more...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: I am pleased to confirm that is the position for the Senator. I reiterate that this is being introduced for very specific purposes. On Senator Tom Sheahan's concerns, I am also happy to reiterate that the liaison with the Revenue Commissioners, should the need arise, would be on rent or market transactions on which the Revenue Commissioners would obviously hold data. As with earlier...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: The Valuation Tribunal is an independent body set up under the Valuation Act 1988 and continued in the Valuation Act 2001 to hear appeals against decisions of the Commissioner of Valuation. The governing positions before the tribunal are contained in Schedule 2 of the 2001 Act. The amendments to this Schedule are primarily aimed at streamlining and improving the operation of the tribunal,...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: This amendment makes three changes to Schedule 4 of the Act. Schedule 4 lists categories of property that are not rateable. The first change is to introduce an exemption for buildings or parts of buildings that are used for community sport but that are not used for the sale or consumption of alcohol or in the generation of income apart from club membership fees. The intention is to ease...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: I am just out of the crèche.

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: I will come to visit Senator Sheahan when the time comes. I thank all Senators for their comments. I will deal first with the issue of community sports facilities. There may have been a misreading of the amendment, which I would like to clarify. I am stating clearly and categorically that we are not deleting paragraph 4 of Schedule 4 to the principal Act, which refers to "land developed...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: I did not interrupt Senator Byrne. The latter used very emotive language, including the word "fraud". I have been very clear since I first took Committee Stage of the Bill - this is the third occasion on which I have done so - as was my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Howlin, when he dealt with Deputy Barry Cowen's Bill in the Dáil, that we have no interest whatsoever in seeking to...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: We would all agree that the Aviva Stadium or Croke Park should not be exempt.

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Oct 2014)

Simon Harris: The situation in this regard is not changing. Commercial activity within sports club will still be rateable. We will have to take a common sense approach as to what constitutes commercial activity.