Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

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 value would be determined.

This amendment also proposes to delete the references to "charges" in section 48(3) of the 2001 Act, as the original inclusion of this reference could result in unintended consequences not contemplated at the time of the passage of the 2001 Act. As such, the term is open to the widest interpretation when taken out of context. The continued inclusion of such an open-ended term has the potential to undermine the rationale for section 48, which is to state and underpin the method of determining the value of a property generally. The term "charges" was included in the 2001 Act in an effort to modernise the wording used when bringing over the predecessor legislation, which had been enacted in the mid-19th century. However, it is now considered to be an inessential adjunct to the more clearly defined term "taxes" in a section which, over time, has generally worked well to the benefit of the valuation code.

The notional rent to be used in calculating the net annual value takes account of any encumbrances on the property. It would seriously undermine the concept of equity and uniformity if otherwise identical properties were distinguished from one another because of particular charges payable on enactment on one property but not on the other. The term may be deleted because its meaning could give rise to diluting and effectively reducing the valuation base.