Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He has. Senator Coghlan has good timing. The Valuation (Amendment)(No. 2) Bill will cover a number of Senator Cullinane's concerns. It is important to have a good debate on the valuation process because, as I stated earlier, it is not satisfactory at present. That is why the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, has had a lengthy consultation process for the past year with stakeholders. For the information of Senator Walsh, there is much work done on this in the Department of Finance, which has always been the Department appropriate for valuation.

It is a matter for the Government to change if it wishes. The Senator was very concerned about it but did not get to change it over 14 years. We are not prepared to devolve the function of and responsibilities for levying rates to municipal districts because I do not want different rates applied by authorities in the same county. People may disagree with that if they wish. We are certainly conscious of the harmonisation of rates across a county area. In this regard, consider the competitive pressures that exist whereby counties or regions might be competing with one another. One should not have one rate on one side of a line dividing municipal districts and a different one on the other. If this were the case, there could be a different rate a mile up the road in a different village or town. That is the background to why we decided to leave the setting of the rates at county level. The elected municipal district member has a second bite of the cherry in that he can argue, at the plenary session of the council, as to what rates would be appropriate, based on needs and resources, in order to run the show in his district. He can also argue what the priorities should be.