Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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554. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the estimates of the revenue lost from the reduction of rateable valuation on energy and telecommunications infrastructure commencing in 2016; and how any budget shortfall will be made up. [40118/15]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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571. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reduction in rates payable by local authorities and by the State as a result of the revision of the global valuation on utilities in tabular form; if it is appropriate that this measure was taken, considering small and medium businesses cannot avail of these global revisions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40441/15]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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582. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will fill the €21 million funding gap remaining after the reduction in the global commercial rates revaluation to ensure that local authorities are not left underfunded. [40576/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 554, 571 and 582 together.

Local authorities are under a statutory obligation to levy rates on any property used for commercial purposes in accordance with the details entered in the valuation lists prepared by the independent Commissioner of Valuation under the Valuation Act 2001.

The Commissioner for Valuation has sole responsibility for all valuation matters, including the global valuation of property of public utility undertakings under Part 11 of the Valuation Act 2001, as amended. The Valuation Act 2001 comes under the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The levying and collection of rates are matters for each individual local authority.  The annual rate on valuation (ARV), which is applied to the valuation for each property, determined by the Valuation Office, to obtain the amount payable in rates, is decided by the elected members of each local authority in the annual budget and its determination is a reserved function. This process is currently being followed in the local government sector as part of the budgeting process. The prescribed period that applies for the holding of 2016 budget meetings by local authorities is 2 November to 27 November 2015. The implications of the Commissioner of Valuation’s global revaluation of utility infrastructure for individual local authorities will ultimately be dependent on each authority’s ARV, and its overall income and expenditure decided on in its budget.