Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

195. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government regarding waivers for the property tax on unfinished estates, 82 waivers were recommended by Kerry County Council but only 27 were granted, the reason the rest were refused; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23531/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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, and established that there were 1,700 unfinished developments, with 1,100 of them deemed to be in a seriously problematic condition. This represents a 37% reduction in unfinished developments since 2010.

Only 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 in the LPT regulations.

For purposes of preparing the final list of developments to which the exemption from the local property tax would apply local authorities were asked by my Department in February 2013 to confirm or update the then existing list of estates in a “seriously problematic condition” as appropriate. A small number of local authorities’ returns were queried by my Department at an aggregate level where it appeared that the list of developments being put forward for inclusion under the exemption was inconsistent with the results of the 2012 survey or where, for example, developments with no completed units or those completely unoccupied had been proposed for inclusion. Authorities were asked to examine their lists again with a view to achieving greater consistency with the results of the 2012 survey.