Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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454. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if a request was received from Galway City Council to reverse the decision not to exempt the residents of an estate (details supplied) in Galway City from the local property tax this year; the decision made by the Department on this application; the reason for this decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36087/13]

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 and Sustainable Communities 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 approximately 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 to confirm or update the then existing list of estates in a “seriously problematic condition” as appropriate.