Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will make a subvention available to compensate for the net downward global revaluation, as he did with other councils that were in the same position in 2015, with regard to the impact of the 2015 global valuations on Fingal council’s budgets, which will not be felt until 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18327/16]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the courses of action councils can take to make up shortfalls that arose from the downward revaluation of utility companies if compensation from central government will not be paid in 2017, as was the case in 2016 in relation to the impact of the 2015 global valuations on council budgets. [18328/16]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is concerned with regards to possible shortfalls in council budgets in relation to the impact of the 2015 global valuations on council budgets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18329/16]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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208. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is concerned that the companies which received downward revaluations were all highly profitable companies (details supplied) and that now small business, many of which are still struggling, could be facing hikes to their rates to compensate for the downward revaluation of many profitable companies or alternatively councils may be forced to cut back on expenditure to compensate for the loss, in relation to the impact of the 2015 global valuations on council budgets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18330/16]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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219. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will be making the same subventions as listed in a table (details supplied) for 2017, in relation to the 2015 global valuations on council budgets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18429/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 205 to 208, inclusive, and 219 together.

The Commissioner for Valuation is responsible for valuation matters, including the global valuation of property of public utility undertakings und er Part 11 of the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015.

The Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015 come under the remit of the Minister for Justice and Equality. This legislation provides for global valuations of utility undertakings to be carried out by the Valuation Office every five years and entered on the central valuation list. This can result in either increases or decreases to the relevant valuation. In 2015, the Valuation Office carried out global valuations carried for Gas Networks Ireland, Iarnrod Eireann and telecommunications companies BT Ireland, Eircom, Vodafone, Three Ireland and Meteor. In November 2015, the Valuation Office issued a copy of the Valuation Certificate and a schedule setting out the apportioned value for each rating authority to my Department. The previous valuation for these utilities had taken place in 2010. The Global Valuation Certificates showed a reduction in the combined valuations for these utilities of €112m. In addition, the reduction in the global valuation of the ESB, following an appeal to the Valuation Tribunal, reduced the rates payable by the ESB from 2016.

The timing of the global valuations in 2015 caused particular difficulties for local authorities as they were published at an advanced stage of the local authority budgetary process. In this regard, my Department engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and it was agreed that there would be a once-off adjustment in support from the Local Government Fund in 2016 to local authorities affected by the global valuations. The additional allocation provided was on an exceptional and once- off basis, solely for the 2016 budgetary period.

The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority. As such, it is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources.