Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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419. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of houses that are actually exempted from the property tax charge in an estate (details supplied) in County Mayo; if he will acknowledge that the manner in which the exemptions were published has created confusion; if he will further acknowledge that it seems unfair that some houses have been exempted in this estate while others have not; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19059/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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An exemption from the local property tax applies to developments listed in the schedule to the Finance (Local Property Tax) Regulations 2013. The list of unfinished housing developments eligible for the exemption was compiled by local authorities utilising the categorisation employed for the purposes of the National Housing Survey 2012. The Survey was carried out over the course of summer 2012 by my Department in conjunction with local authorities and the Housing Agency.

The categorisation methodology for the survey was different to that which was used in 2011 and which provided the basis for the waiver from the household charge. That earlier categorisation related largely to the level of on-site activity at the time the 2011 survey was carried out and had less to do with the physical character of a development. The 2012 survey was based purely and objectively on the actual state of completion of a development. Only developments , or parts of developments, that were deemed by local authorities to be in a “seriously problematic condition”, regardless of whether a developer was on or off site, were included. Mayo County Council ha s indicated that only a portion of the Church Manor Estate in Ballina , Co Mayo , in which there is one residence, is in a seriously problematic condition.