Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When there is a revaluation of a county the Valuation Office issues the local authority with a global valuation certificate, with a new valuation for the whole county. However, I have been intrigued over the years by the fact that the valuation never changes. When new businesses start with huge rates, the valuations of other properties do not go down. In my county, the gas pipeline went right through the centre of the county, from the west coast to the east coast. It had a huge rates bill of over €1 million, which the local authority is lucky to be getting. It should mean the valuation relating to other ratepayers should go down. When new properties come online with big valuations, one would expect the global valuation certificate to change but I have never seen that. It always goes up, in every town, and the valuation of Dublin, for example, has probably quadrupled in the past 30 years.