Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent)
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123. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding the backlog in the Valuations Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51295/13]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Commissioner of Valuation is independent in the exercise of his duties under the Valuation Act, 2001 and the carrying out of valuations for rating purposes is his sole prerogative and the Act does not accord me as Minister any function in this regard.

There are two provisions in the legislation governing the assessment of valuations, i.e. revision and revaluation.

Revision of valuation is the mechanism used to maintain existing local authority valuation lists. It is used to add new properties to the list, to amend the valuations of altered properties and to remove demolished or defunct properties from the list. The valuations of commercial properties at revision are determined by reference to the net annual values of comparable properties on the same valuation list. That is to say that they are compared with similar type properties in the same local authority area to ensure, in so far as it is possible, that they are all treated equally. While there are some arrears of casework in this area, they are not significant and in any event, revision applications received from the public are disposed of without undue delay. While there has been a marked decrease in the number of applications for revision of valuation in recent years, mainly due to the economic downturn, the vast majority of applications are from the local authorities with whom the Valuation Office is in close liaison, to ensure that priority cases are dealt with as expeditiously as possible and to agree timelines for the delivery of revisions generally.

The Valuation Office has also been conducting a National Revaluation Programme. In a revaluation the entire commercial valuation list for a local authority is brought up-to-date by reference to values at a specific valuation date and the entire list is published on one date (usually 31 December) and comes into effect for rating purposes on 1 January the following year. To-date, revaluations of the commercial list have been completed in South Dublin, Fingal and Dun Laoghaire County Council areas and the revaluation programme for the Dublin City Council area is currently underway and is expected to be completed by 31st December, 2013. Additionally, the revaluation of properties in all the local authority areas of Waterford and Limerick will be completed in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The Commissioner is pursuing a balanced programme of revision and revaluation casework and with the completion of the Dublin City and Waterford revaluation programmes imminent, a concentration of effort is being applied currently to the revision work programme in consultation with the local authorities

Conducting a revaluation of all commercial and industrial properties in the State has been the policy of successive Governments since enactment of the Valuation Act 2001. The Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2012 which had its second stage reading in Seanad Éireann on 11th October, 2012 and is currently awaiting Committee stage, provides for a number of initiatives to accelerate the overall revaluation programme, such as the piloting of a self-assessment scheme of valuation in one local authority area, which if it proves successful could be extended to other areas. There is also provision in the Bill to allow for the assessment of valuations by contract valuers under an external delivery scheme which is also being initiated as a pilot project. The Bill also contains provisions to streamline the overall process of revaluation and the appeal mechanisms available to ratepayers subsequent to the revaluation.

Regarding the levying of rates, the position is that under Irish law, there is a distinct separation of function between the determination of valuation of rateable property and the setting and collection of commercial rates. The amount of rates payable by a ratepayer in any calendar year is a product of the valuation of that property determined by the Valuation Office and the annual rate on valuation (ARV) set annually by the elected members of the rating authority. Rates can only be collected by the rating authority on property which has been valued under the Valuation Act, 2001 and there is no mechanism to collect rates, retrospectively or otherwise, pending the determination and issue of the valuation under the Act.