Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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139. To ask the Minister for Finance the specific measures he has taken to amend section 10A of the Local Property Tax Act, as amended in 2012, in order that residents can access their local property tax exemption for pyrite without having to carry out an infill test, a criteria which he is on record for over a year as stating would be addressed. [32832/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Section 10A of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (as amended) provides for a temporary exemption of at least three years from the charge to Local Property Tax (LPT) for residential properties that have been certified under Regulations made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (S.I. No 147 of 2013) as having "significant pyritic damage".  

Revenue administers applications for exemption from LPT for residential properties that have been certified as having "significant pyritic damage". The property owner is specifically required to support a claim for the exemption by submitting a certificate, to Revenue, issued by a competent person as detailed in I.S. 398  Reactive pyrite in sub-floor hardcore material Part 1: Testing and categorisation protocol, published by the NSAI.

As the Deputy is aware, I initiated a review of the operation of the Local Property Tax (LPT) earlier this year. The Review was carried out by Dr Don Thornhill who chaired the Inter-Departmental Group on the Design of a local property tax in 2012. While Dr Thornhill's current review focussed mainly on the issue of property price developments, it also considered and made recommendations on a limited number of other issues relating to the efficient and effective operation of LPT. I considered it appropriate that Dr Thornhill's review included the operation of the pyrite exemption for Local Property Tax.

It was made clear during the passage of the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act in 2013 that the exemption would be restricted to properties with significant pyritic damage, and that not all damaged properties could avail of the exemption. Regulations made by the Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government in relation to testing/certification and the NSAI protocol were published in May 2013 and these restricted the LPT exemption to properties with 'significant pyritic damage' where such damage had been proven by the appropriate testing and subsequently certified.

Before its establishment, it would have been envisaged that the Pyrite Remediation Board (PRB) would have remediated those properties that would have qualified for a LPT exemption and that the requirement to have the level of pyrite damage verified and certified would be a pre-condition for remediation. However, it transpired that only properties with a damage condition rating of 2 are being accepted for remediation by the PRB. Also, I understand that the PRB is not testing and certifying all properties that are being remediated. This gives rise to two issues; firstly, properties with a damage condition rating of 1 (with progression) are not being accepted for remediation by the PRB and, secondly, not all properties that are accepted for remediation are tested and certified. A property owner who might have only a damage condition rating of 1, or 1 (with progression established by a second test), and who wants to claim the LPT exemption has to spend €1,500 to €2,000 on testing and certification. Properties with a damage condition rating of 2 are accepted for remediation but are not eligible for the LPT exemption unless as they have the required certificate.

The outcome of  Dr Thornhill's Review has been presented to me in report form and is currently being considered and will be published on Budget day.  I will outline my response to this very important issue on Budget Day.

Any resolution to the pyrite issues may necessitate a change in the relevant provisions of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (as amended) and/or the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Pyrite Exemption) Regulations 2013. If legislative change is required, then I will examine the possibilities for its advance application on an administrative basis with the Revenue Commissioners.