Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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115. To ask the Minister for Finance further to his recommendation to freeze the evaluation of property tax until November 2019, his plans to implement the recommendations of the Thornhill report, with particular reference to recommendations Nos. 3, 4 and 9; his timeframe for implementing such recommendations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6761/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I engaged Dr. Thornhill to consider the operation of the Local Property Tax, in particular, any impacts on LPT liabilities due to recent property price developments.  The review was informed by the outcomes of a public consultation initiated in March 2015 in response to which fifty-one written submissions were received.

In his report on his review of the Local Property Tax which was published on Budget Day 2015 - Dr. Thornhill makes a number of recommendations. His central recommendation is for a revised system whereby a minimum level of LPT revenues in each local authority area would be determined by Government, ideally having regard to the apportionment between local authority areas of the historic yield. This in turn would allow for the estimation of LPT rates for each local authority area and the application of these by taxpayers and Revenue. Local authorities could adjust this rate upwards by a factor of up to 15%. This new system was recommended by Dr. Thornhill with a possible interim deferral of the next valuation date until November 2018 or November 2019. 

In my Budget 2016 statement, I announced that I would be proposing to Government that the revaluation date for the LPT be postponed from 2016 to 2019. This postponement means that home owners will not be faced with significant increases in their LPT in 2017 as a result of increased property values.  The postponement also gives sufficient time for the other recommendations in Dr Thornhill's report to be considered fully by the next Government.

The Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2015 gives effect to the postponement of the revaluation date of residential property for LPT purposes, and also to two of the recommendations in Dr. Thornhill's report, involving LPT relief for properties affected by pyrite and relief for properties occupied by persons with disabilities (recommendations numbers 11 and 12 respectively).  

As I have indicated, issues relating to the implementation of other recommendations in the Report will be a matter for consideration by the next Government.