Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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376. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the way the local property tax will be set by local authorities; if it will be a function of the manager to propose a rate in the annual budget; and what power councillors will have. [6369/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Under section 20 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012, a local authority may, as a reserved function to be discharged by the elected members , resolve to vary the rate of the Local Property Tax within its functional area by a maximum of +/-15%. This power will be available to local authorities effective from 2015, as the relevant sections of the Act will come into operation on 1 July 2014.

Section 20 of the Act requires that, in varying the rate, a local authority must take account of its financial position, its income and expenditure, and of the financial effect of the varied rate on the economy of its functional area, including on those persons who will be liable to pay the Local Property Tax. Section 20 also provides that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government may make regulations, including in respect of public consultation requirements prior to the variation of the rate of the Tax. I will give consideration to the making of such regulations in advance of the coming into operation of section 20 of the 2012 Act.