Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donohoe.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to present the Bill to Seanad Éireann. The local property tax has become a well-embedded and established part of our tax structure since it was introduced in 2013. It provides a stable funding base for local authorities and it has raised over €6 billion since it was introduced. The programme for Government contains a clear commitment to ensure fairness and stability in local property tax payments and to continue to retain revenue collected locally in the same local authority. This Bill seeks to amend the charging structure for local property tax in advance of the upcoming revaluation on 1 November. It is necessary that we enact this Bill before the summer recess and I am grateful for the Seanad's facilitation of that.

The most significant proposal in the Bill is a revised method for calculating local property tax liabilities. The new approach maintains the number of valuation bands at 20, with all bands being widened by 20%. Some 96% of homeowners will remain in their existing band. The basic rate of LPT is to be decreased from 0.1029% to 0.0906%, which will apply to properties valued up to €1.26 million. This will result in a small increase in all LPT charges. The fixed charges for bands 1 and 2 will be increased from €90 to €95 for band 1 and from €225 to €235 for band 2. Properties valued between €1.26 million and €2.1 million will be charged at 0.0906% on the first €1.26 million, with a subsequent 0.25% on the balance of a midpoint value in excess of €1.26 million. Properties in band 20 will be charged on individual property values as before, which is to say 0.0906% on the first €1.26 million, 0.25% between €1.26 million and €2.1 million and 0.3% on the balance.

These amendments will ensure that the majority of homeowners remain in the same valuation band while also increasing base charges by a modest amount. The changes are expected to yield an additional €45 million in revenue, which will provide important funding for local services. The Bill proposes to set the duration of the upcoming valuation period to five years, commencing in 2026 and ending in 2030, with future valuation periods also lasting five years. This provides certainty to homeowners about their LPT obligations while ensuring that properties continue to be revalued on a frequent basis. The next revaluation would therefore occur on 1 November.

The system of deferral arrangements is an important support for those who have difficulty paying LPT, so let me provide an update on that and the measures contained in this Bill. The Bill amends the income thresholds for LPT deferrals, increasing them to €25,000 for a single person and €40,000 for a couple. It also provides that the income threshold for a partial deferral be increased to €40,000 for a single person and to €55,000 for a couple. These changes represent an increase of 30% to 40%, depending on personal status and whether the threshold is in respect of full or partial deferral.

Regarding the local authority factor, Senators will be aware that local authorities have the discretion to adjust the LPT rate collected in their areas up or down by 15%. The Bill proposes to allow local authorities to vary the LPT upwards by up to 25% with effect from 2027 onwards. This will provide local authorities with greater flexibility with regard to this tax.

On the matter of adaptation of homes for use by persons with a disability, the Act of 2012 provides for a reduction of €50,000 in the chargeable value of a property for homes that have been adapted for use by a person with a disability. The policy objective is to ensure that disabled homeowners whose properties have realised an increase in value due to necessary adaptations having been made are not liable for a higher LPT charge as a result of these changes. Through this Bill, the valuation bands will be widened to €105,000. Accordingly, the Bill will also allow for a reduction in the chargeable value of a property by this amount for homes that have been adapted in this manner and where the qualifying conditions are met.

I turn to the issue of LPT exemption for homes with defective concrete blocks. The Bill makes a number of amendments to the six-year exemption from LPT for homes that have been damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks. This exemption currently only applies to properties in Donegal and Mayo. The scheme has been extended to Clare, Limerick and Sligo local authorities since the LPT was last amended in 2021. Amendments are being made to update the wording of the exemption to ensure that homes in these additional counties that are eligible for the scheme are also eligible for this LPT exemption, as well as to reflect changes made to the defective concrete block remediation scheme since 2021. These amendments will have no adverse effect on any homeowners presently eligible for the exemption. The Bill also contains two sections that relate to two other taxation matters. The Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 introduced defensive measures in relation to payments leaving our jurisdiction such as interest, royalties, and other distributions, including dividends to jurisdictions on the EU list of non-co-operative jurisdictions for tax purposes and no-tax and zero-tax jurisdictions, to counter aggressive tax planning. The passing of this legislation was also listed as one of the four tax-related milestones in Ireland's national recovery and resilience plan, NRRP, and was the final one to be completed. The Bill provides for a technical amendment which extends the definition of "associated entities" to include entities that are associated by reference to the ownership or control by the same individuals, or individuals connected with those individuals, within the meaning of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. This update to the legislation will ensure it operates as intended and future NRRP funding requests will not be hindered.

On a final matter with regard to VAT and the supply of gas and electricity, I introduced a financial resolution in April this year to extend the temporary reduction in VAT on the supply of gas and electricity. This measure was due to expire on 30 April and revert to the original 13.5% rate from 1 May. The financial resolution extends the measure to 31 October this year. The Bill provides for the required legislative basis for the extension. The cost of this is €85 million.

Together with my Government colleagues I have sought to deliver on our programme for Government commitments to ensure fairness and stability in LPT payments. What we seek to achieve is to get the balance right between ensuring LPT charges remain affordable while also generating sufficient revenue to provide for local services. I believe we are getting that balance right. I thank the Senators for their attention and I look forward to hearing their contributions.

Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister. I am speaking on behalf of Fine Gael in the absence of our finance spokesperson, Senator Joe O’Reilly, who sends his apologies. He is abroad attending a meeting of the Council of Europe today.

I welcome to the House Senator Boyle's brother, Councillor Michael Boyle, and his guests. They are most welcome and I wish Michael the very best of luck in his new role on Donegal County Council.

I support this legislation. There are a number of key points I want to highlight. It is so important when it comes to any taxation policy, in my opinion, that we ensure we balance the need for affordability with providing consistency and stability, ensuring that people and individuals are aware of what their liability will be into the future. This legislation does exactly that. By ensuring we now move to a five-year period of valuations, we are allowing homeowners to have certainty about what their property tax liability will be as regards the valuations right up until 2030. That is so important that there are not up and down valuations year on year and uncertainty giving rise to confusion.

In regard to maintaining the 20 bands we have and ensuring there is a 20% widening of those bands, we are, in effect, making sure individuals who have seen a rise in the value of their home will not be overly burdened by the market increasing. This is so important when we consider the fact that, right across the country, there has been an increase in property values and that individuals who have no intention of selling their family home and intend to remain in it for the rest of their days will not be caught out and penalised as they would have been had the decision to widen the bands not been taken and included as part of this legislation.

It is important there is an emphasis given to the deferral scheme that exists under this legislation so that individuals who find themselves in a position of not being able to make the payment immediately have the option to apply, through the Revenue, for that deferral. As someone who has facilitated constituents in Wexford in making those applications, I pay tribute to the Revenue officials who deal with the request for deferrals in such a courteous manner. It is important to note that.

I spent five and a half years as an elected member of Wexford County Council where we utilised the ability of the local authority to increase and vary the local property tax by 15%. That decision was not taken lightly. As someone who voted on five occasions for that measure, first as a 10% increase to the base rate and thereafter to a 15% increase, that was a difficult decision to take. We saw first-hand the return that was given directly from that decision. I am a strong believer in local government. I genuinely believe we need a strong system of local government in this country and that we do suffer as a country from having, at times, too centralised a model. I very much welcome the opportunity for local authorities to take the decision to vary their local authority base rate on the LPT by up to 25%.

Wexford, as a county, that saw the benefit of the 15% increase, we specifically took the decision to ring-fence the additional revenue that was brought in - approximately slightly more than €1 million a year - for key projects. In my town of Enniscorthy, the council acquired the ability to develop a 38-acre site for the Enniscorthy Technology Park, investing €2.5 million in a state-of-the-art office building with plans to construct an advance factory. In Wexford town we have seen ambitious plans and the acquisition of the Trinity Wharf site which, when fully developed, provides Wexford town with the ability to have a ready-to-go site for foreign direct investment and which ultimately will be the home of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA. In New Ross we have seen ambitious plans from the decision first taken in 2018 by Wexford County Council to increase the property tax base rate now realised on street refurbishment, and we recently had the opening of Brennan's Lane in New Ross by the Minister's colleague, the Minister, Deputy Calleary. The reason I raise this is because these were all projects directly funded by that decision taken by Wexford county councillors and, at the time, strongly opposed. One of the key things from that debate is that those who say it is not possible to raise the base rate are always happy to attend the ribbon cutting ceremonies, to be at the official opening and to be supportive of the projects, but when the time comes to take the difficult decision to raise the rate, they are nowhere to be seen. That is democracy in action but there is an element of hypocrisy in appearing at ceremonies to open events which were voted down when it came to funding them. It is important to make that point.

The fact that 96% of individual homeowners should see no change to the band they are in as a result of the decision to increase base rate of the bands by 20% is an important point to get out there in the public domain. The vast majority of people will not see any difference in the contribution they are making above and beyond the 3% to 6% that was flagged across the 20 bands. I remember when discussing this issue a number of years ago, there was a concern that if a house which was constructed before 2013 did not fall under the existing local property tax rules, it would therefore be pushed into a higher bracket than would otherwise have been the case than if that house has existed in 2012. I think that now, and the Minister might come back on this point, any house that has been constructed since 2013 will fall under the LPT regime but will be done so on the same basis as the valuations that apply to all other properties under this scheme.I have seen situations where a housing estate was constructed in 2010, 2011 or 2012 and a second phase was built later. In some cases individuals who moved in during the second phase were living next door to people who moved in during phase one and there was that element of uncertainty and an element of unfairness.

The Fine Gael group is supporting this legislation and the key decisions to increase the bands by 20%. The Minister has, with this piece of legislation, found the balance between the need for affordability while ensuring local authorities can forecast and budget for the next five years.

Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to the House. He is a former member of the Seanad and I wish him continued success as Minister for Finance. I am standing in this afternoon for Senator Pat Casey who is attending the Council of Europe.

Having been a councillor for 11 years before becoming a Member of this House, I am very aware of the importance of the local property tax, both as a source of funding for local authorities and as a concern for homeowners, particularly in challenging times. As the Minister and Members will be aware, the local property tax was introduced in 2013 as part of a wider effort to broaden our tax base. The idea behind the tax was that it would provide a stable and a predictable level of funding to our local authorities and reduce our reliance on volatile transaction-based taxes, such as stamp duty. Over a decade on since the introduction of the LPT, I think even critics would have to agree it has delivered on those goals of broadening our tax base and delivering a reliable level of funding to our local authorities. It has become the lynchpin of local government funding, supporting the delivery of essential services we rely on every day. Whether it is the maintenance of our roads, footpaths, the upkeep of our parks and green spaces, or funding for our libraries, community centres and other local amenities, the funding delivered from the LPT is essential to those works.

Perhaps the LPT's most important aspect is it is a tax retained locally. The revenue raised in each local authority area is spent almost exclusively in that area, ensuring that communities see a direct return for their contribution. The principle of local accountability and local benefit is at the heart of the LPT system and one that the Bill seeks to strengthen. From my own experience on Galway City Council, it was very important we ring-fenced the money for certain projects in the three LEAs in Galway city in order that each person living in those areas would see the benefit. Of course, the LPT must adapt to changing conditions, as any tax must. As the Minister and all Members will be aware, property prices have increased substantially since the previous revision which was made in 2021. Data from the Central Statistics Office reflects this, showing that residential property prices have increased by over 20% in the past four years. In some areas the increases in residential property prices have been ever steeper than that. If the current system had been left in place, it would have led to homeowners facing a dramatic rise in their LPT, and that would have been neither fair nor sustainable.

The Government recognises this and has engaged with all stakeholders before publishing this Bill, which will ensure changes made to the system keep the LPT as fair and sustainable as possible. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, referenced that the Bill widens the valuation bands by 20%. As a result, the valuation bands used to calculate the LPT will be expanded, allowing many homeowners to stay within their existing bands despite rising property values. As has been outlined, this key measure helps ensure the vast majority of homeowners, around 96%, will not experience an increase of more than one band in their LPT assessment. In fact, many will see no change at all. To give perspective, even though property values have gone up by roughly 24%, the broader bands and updated base rate of 0.0906% means that the typical increase in LPT for most households will remain under 5%. For properties valued below €1.26 million, the base charge will rise between 5% and 6%. This represents a relatively small adjustment consistent with the rise in property values and significantly below the rate of inflation. For higher value properties, the legislation ensures that the local property tax remains aligned with market values. Homes worth more than €2.1 million will be taxed based on their full market value, with graduated rates applied across the value brackets. This progressive structure is central to maintaining fairness in the system, ensuring owners of more expensive properties pay their fair share while shielding those with low or middle incomes from steep increase, which is correct, right and fair. I commend the Government on doing this.

A key element of the Bill is the establishment of a five-year valuation period from 2026 to 2030. This brings greater predictability and stability for property owners enabling them to plan their finances with more confidence. The next revaluation scheduled for 1 November 2030 will continue a consistent review cycle that reflects shifts in the property market without causing major disruption.

The Bill also tackles affordability by adjusting the income threshold for LPT deferral in line with current economic conditions. This ensures that individuals on lower incomes or with limited financial resources can still access the deferral options. These thresholds have been revised to account for inflation, wage growth and increases in State supports since 2021, an essential measure to prevent the LPT from becoming an excessive burden on vulnerable households.

Additionally, the Bill strengthens the roles of the local authorities by allowing them to increase the LPT rate by up to 25%, enhancing their ability to address local priorities. The existing cap of a 15% reduction remains in place. Crucially, any extra revenue generated through these adjustments will stay with the local authorities, ensuring that the financial benefits are reinvested in local services and infrastructure, directly benefiting communities across our country.

From a local perspective with regard to Galway, I know how important the funding from the LPT was for Galway City Council's budgets. I also recognise the strain householders were under in terms of their own finances. The local property tax has been instrumental in funding essential services across our city. It has supported the upkeep of parks, playgrounds, locals sports clubs and enabled the delivery of local programmes that strengthen our communities. It has also contributed to funding road maintenance and enhanced public lighting. Over the past few months I have heard from many constituents who value these services but are understandably concerned about the effects rising property values might have on their LPT bills. This Bill addresses those concerns head on by expanding the valuation bands and limiting the average increase to less than 5%. We are ensuring most homeowners in Galway city and county and across the country will see only a modest and manageable adjustment to their LPT liabilities and one that is fair and proportionate.

The revised deferral thresholds provide an essential safety net. No one should have to choose between paying LPT and covering basic living costs. The Government has been steadfast in its determination to protect the most vulnerable. This Bill is a clear reflection of that commitment. We live in most uncertain times and that means it is more important than ever to maintain a broad and stable tax base. It also delivers on commitments made in the programme for Government to promote fairness and stability in LPT payments, keep revenue in local areas and protect those on low incomes. This Bill meets all of those commitments. It is a balanced, forward-thinking and responsible piece of legislation that will benefit our communities for years to come. The core principles that shape the Bill are fairness, stability and local empowerment. By broadening the valuation bands, updating the deferral thresholds and applying progressive rates to high-value properties, we are ensuring the LPT remains fair and proportionate. On stability, the five-year valuation period brings predictability and allows homeowners to plan with confidence. When it comes to local empowerment, it enables local authorities to vary the LPT and retain any additional revenue. It also reinforces the importance of local authorities and local accountability.

I am proud to support this Bill and urge all Members to do so. It is the right step forward for homeowners, local authorities and the future of public services.

Conor Murphy (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister's presence in the Chamber. This is a challenging issue for any finance minister to deal with, but one that must be faced nonetheless. The political choices involved are undoubtedly helped by the fact of the significant resources currently in this State. I have had this challenge north of the Border as Minister of Finance. I must lay out at the start that it is a different set of circumstances. There are little or no alternative revenue-raising options for the Executive north of the Border except for a property tax, which is known as the rates. The North has operated in a context of austerity policies for the past 14 years and continues to do so, unfortunately, even with the new Labour government. These policies have crippled public services and restricted greatly the ability of the Executive in the North to provide services. Consequently, 10% of the Executive's income comes from property rates. That income is used to fund schools and hospitals as well as local government and a whole range of public services. While we recognise that placed a burden on householders and businesses, even though the tax was set progressively and there were significant exemptions, it was recognised this was not something we would have come to of our volition had it not been the system that was in place and it being the only option available.

In my time as finance Minister I set up a fiscal commission with some very qualified people to look at alternative revenue-raising options for the Executive. They produced a very substantial report having engaged with all the political parties and a whole range of players. It included the prospect of income tax, among other fiscal powers, being transferred to the Executive. Unfortunately, political unionism does not believe in additional powers for the Executive and that is where the matter remains stuck. Therefore, though property tax is a proposal we have to engage with north of the Border, it is not one we have ever been supportive of and, as I said, we have proactively tried to examine alternatives to it and tried to promote them.

The difference on this side of the Border is the Government has the ability and resources to phase out property tax while also funding local authorities with the revenue they would forgo. Sinn Féin has presented these proposals annually in our alternative budgets but they have yet to be taken up by governments. The exercise we are currently in to satisfy the revaluation process is a consequence of that political choice. Unfortunately, the inevitable outcome of this will be to increase, especially on some struggling families during a cost-of-living crisis, which the Government recognises with some other measures, though they are insufficient. That is more difficult to bear for people when they understand vulture funds, for instance, still do not pay taxes on their rental incomes as well as that rents are going up very significantly and house prices are spiralling out of control.

An additional matter, which the Minister addressed in his opening contribution, is homes which are affected by defective concrete blocks. Aside from the difficulty owners are experiencing with accessing the redress scheme, the Minister advised yesterday evening that only 1,000 properties have managed to avail of the exemption from property tax. It appears people who are understandably trying to do some running repairs on their homes when faced with the very obvious defects and dangers of the structures they are forced to live in can unwittingly put themselves outside the threshold of that exemption. I hope that is something in particular the Minister will look at. There will be further discussion here next week on some amendments to this. Amendments were put forward in the Dáil as well. The recognition of the difficulty in accessing exemptions and the problems of people in accessing the redress scheme itself shows people who are living in an impossible situation are not receiving the support they deserve. I trust the Minister will engage with that.

Property tax is an issue I have had to engage with in a previous position but is not one we have ever sought to support or create. There are better, fairer and more progressive alternative means of revenue-raising. Especially given the situation in this part of Ireland where the resources are there to do that, the Government should look again at the issue of property taxes.

Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)
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We have no other Senators offering so I call the Minister to conclude.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chairperson for the opportunity to respond to the different issues that have been raised there. I thank Senators Crowe, Deasy and Murphy for contributing to this discussion.

I will begin with the points made by the first speaker, Senator Deasy, and the different issues he raised. I am so sorry. I meant Senator Cathal Byrne.

Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)
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That is okay.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I do not know where that came from. Although, I actually do know where it came from, so I apologise.

Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)
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A slip of the tongue is no fault of the mind.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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It was a slip of the tongue nonetheless, so I apologise. I know what it is like. I was referred to as Paschal Sheehy for all my early years in here and then I eventually turned into Paschal Mooney before becoming known as Paschal Donohoe. I apologise to Senator Byrne again.

The point he opened by making was on the trade-off between the need for affordability and the stability of income. That is the balance we have tried to get right. A small number of people will be moving band and we are asking them to pay €20 or €25 extra. I am conscious that for lots of people, finding extra money is difficult with the cost of living, with everything and with the challenges that many are facing. We have tried to get the balance right between what we are asking people to pay - to be as affordable as possible and well below the level at which the value of homes has been going up by in recent years - and in turn giving our local authorities the confidence they will know how much money they will have from the local property tax over a five-year period. Since I brought forward this legislation, I have heard lots of Members of the Oireachtas speak very positively about the contribution the local property tax has made. That is demonstrated by the reality that the majority of local authorities have put up local property tax rather than cut it. Dublin City Council, the one I know the best, is about to make the decision that for the coming year it will stop reducing it by 15%. This is all just a recognition by councillors that if you bring in additional revenue, local authorities are very well-positioned to know how to spend that money well and that is what we have tried to get right here in this legislation.

Senator Byrne also touched on the importance of the deferral scheme and acknowledged the changes we have made to it. He welcomed that we are going to allow the LPT to be put up by more. We are going to allow local authorities to increase it by up to 25%. While I do not believe many or even any local authorities will go all the way up to a 25% increase, I want to give the flexibility to authorities that if there is a really important project they want to deliver within a given year and they believe the importance of that project is acknowledged by the communities they represent, then flexibility is there to do that.

Senator Byrne asked me how new properties would be taxed and the issue of equality between properties that were more recently built and pre-existing ones. I have two points on that. The benefit to the two revaluations we have done, both of which I have been involved with, is, absent the revaluations, we were in a situation where any homes built since the local property tax was first introduced in 2013 were not paying the tax at all. There was a real issue of equality regarding a home built in 2011 for which local property tax was being paid and a home built in, say, 2017 or 2018 for which it was not.One of the benefits of being on our second revaluation is we ensure that, as homes are built each year, they are brought into the local property tax net. That will then ensure that all homeowners are making a contribution to local services. The second point in response to the important issue is how we can then ensure that homes that are built later on in the lifetime of a revaluation are taxed in the same way as homes that were already built or were built earlier in the life cycle of this revaluation, during the five year period. The way we do this is that we re-price or rebalance all homes back to what their valuation would have been at the start of the revaluation period. Revenue then provides guidance to allow new owners of new homes to do it. Of course, word of mouth and looking at information that is available on the web will allow homeowners to do that themselves in many cases. That is to ensure we are taxing homes in a fair way.

On the points made by Senator Crowe, he talked about affordability. I will emphasise a point the Senator noted. The majority of homes will stay inside their existing valuation band. To be completely clear with the House, and all the Senators who have spoken on the Bill here this afternoon know this, even if you are inside the same valuation band, your LPT bill will still go up after this legislation is passed. That is because the mid-point of the valuation band goes up, and because the mid-point goes up, that requires those to pay a higher LPT bill. The vast majority of people are staying within that band. By moving the rate, we have tried to ensure the new tax people will pay will be as affordable as possible. For those who are at the very start of the LPT bands, band 1 and band 2, it is €5 and €10. For those who move up, it will be around €20 to €23 extra we will ask them to pay. It goes up more for people who have higher value homes, but it is a reasonable assumption to make that the majority of those who are living in higher value homes will be a in a position to pay the higher local property tax bill.

They key thing is if you do this every five years, over many years we will build up an increasingly significant revenue stream for local authorities. There are many other jurisdictions that have introduced local property taxes and found it very difficult to revalue them at all, meaning the bill is calculated off the value of property at a distant point from previous years. The fact we are now completing our second piece of revaluation legislation will help with that. Senator Byrne made the point about how important this is to local authorities and the importance of consistently doing revaluations, which we are aiming to do here in this legislation. Those are all the ways in which we are trying to deal with the issues he raised.

While Senator Murphy and I differ on this, I understand the points he has made. I cannot help be struck by the lingering feeling, however, that if he was in my shoes, he would do the same thing with this Bill here this afternoon. I am sure he will refute that in the response back in a moment. He will know from his work as finance Minister that if you make a decision to get rid of a particular form of taxation, you rarely have easy answers as to how you replace it. However, I know his view and the view of his party in relation to this legislation, which I debated elsewhere. Senator Murphy made the point that we have alternative ways of raising the €600 million, but there are few easy ways of raising €600 million. When I look at the alternative ways of doing that, all of them create costs, difficulties and trade-offs that I believe we should not be doing as a country. Where this ultimately ends up is people who are against this tax saying we have a surplus of €8 billion and we should use the surplus to pay for getting rid of the local property tax. However, we are awash with warnings from people, including me and the Department of Finance, saying that surplus, while it is very good to have it at the moment, is ultimately made up of a very small number of taxpayers. None of us want to be in a situation where we see tax revenue from a small number of taxpayers collapse again with all of the consequences of that and what that would mean for the future of our economy and country.

One point the Senator made was about the concrete block exemption and the fact only 1,000 homes have availed of it, which is true. I shared that information with the Dáil last night, but that is because we have a consistent way of looking at what the damage threshold is to allow you to avail of the exemption of local property tax between this legislation and the legislation that oversees the defective concrete block remediation scheme. We need to ensure they are consistent with each other and we are aiming to recognise the difficulties that lots of homeowners face from the impact of mica and the huge difficulty the spread of mica has caused. In this legislation, we are now broadening the number of counties that will be able to access the exemption because, very regrettably, we now know the number of counties that are affected by this is greater than when we brought in the first revaluation a number of years ago.

I thank the three Senators who have contributed to this debate and others who might participate in Committee and Report Stages. I thank the Seanad for the facilitation of this piece of legislation.

Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)
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When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)
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Next Tuesday.

Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)
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When it is proposed to sit again?

Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)
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Next Tuesday at 2.30.

Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.