Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and I welcome this Bill. When I was a member of South Dublin County Council all the council members were excited in 2001 about the revaluation process starting but here we are today, so many years later, only at the beginning of the process. It shows the need for very significant change. The Minister has outlined today how the process can be accelerated by ensuring that the measures he described will be implemented.

There are issues in the Bill which I wish to discuss. The Minister outlined the various changes in the Bill to the Valuation Act 2001 regarding the basis of valuing commercial property to which local authority rates apply. The basis of valuing property is set down in statute, as Senator Tom Sheahan said, but we must ensure that the basis of valuation reflects the economic side of the spectrum. We all know that what pertained in the boom will not pertain in the bust. We must ensure that the methodology laid down for rateable valuation is cognisant of and based on the economics of the day.

The major changes introduced in the system for revaluing all commercial property in Ireland started in 2001. It is taking a long time. The timetable for revaluation given at that time proved wildly optimistic and the current estimate for the completion of the revaluation process is 2020, almost 20 years after the Valuation Act 2001 was passed.

The Valuation (Amendment)(No. 2) Bill seeks to introduce a number of measures to speed up the valuation process. This includes allowing work to be outsourced. On the outsourcing, we are all familiar with seeing signs throughout the country for valuers, auctioneers, undertakers and everything else under the sun. What training must the valuers have to ensure that when this work is outsourced to them they will all have a value based, uniform system? I heard only recently that when the banks were employing outsourced valuers, the valuers asked what price they wished to put on the property and how much they wanted to loan. That is how many of the valuations of property were carried out. That cannot happen in this case. We must have statistical guidance and analysis for valuation for the people who are doing the valuing. The same would apply to self assessment.

The Minister stated that it is a pilot project. If the valuers are not satisfied with the situation, they can ask for the records. I presume the records they can ask for are available under the tax, freedom of information and other legislation and that the valuer will not be able to look for private records or whatever that are not available to the public. What valuers can ask for when they go into a premises must be tabulated and set out exactly. What provisions are made for persons who carry out self-assessment? Senator Landy said he rang somebody who said the natural instinct would be to put it on the low side. To be fair to people, they want to pay a fair rate but they do not want it to be abused or to result in X in a certain county who is making far more money paying a smaller rate. How can we ensure that the self-assessor is enabled to make a proper self-assessment?

Questions have been raised by many businesses about the appeals system. The Irish Hotels Federation and many other bodies have made representations to us. The Minister must ensure that he is taking the proper road. My interpretation of it is that it will speed up the process and make it less cumbersome. There are three or four appeals systems at present, which is slowing down the process. We must ensure, however, that in speeding it up we get it right as well.

I would compare it to the planning process, where there is one appeal system. There is still the appeal to the tribunal and the appeal to the courts. We are left with the various appeals systems but are cutting out one. Will the Minister of State ensure everybody is satisfied that the appeals systems will ensure everybody gets their due rights?

In my other life and wearing my other hat, I travelled around the country inspecting preschools. The difference in rates for crèches, preschools and so on was brought to my attention so often. I could paper the walls of South Dublin County Council with the number of times I brought it up to try to have the rates for crèches and preschools examined. Other countries give assistance to preschools and crèches and free preschool places. I welcome the free preschool year, but Senator van Turnhout pointed out an anomaly. I was trained in the Montessori system - preschool education to senior level. This is definitely an area we must consider. Will the Minister of State examine the system of rates for preschools to see if it could be made fairer?

What people pay crèches and preschools varies around the country, and 88 different local authorities are charged with the responsibility for setting rates. More than ¤400 million comes into the economy from this sector. Will the Minister look at it? We cannot look for a full exemption but there are ways around it.

Naming the State bodies that are exempt is very good because there are so many that are denuding local authorities of a rate base which could be valuable. We have always looked for that at local authority level. It is good that they will be named.