Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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81. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of properties waiting for rate assessments by the Valuation Office in each local authority area for each of the years 2013 to date in 2016 in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31798/16]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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82. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of properties that are currently waiting for rate assessments by the Valuation Office in each local authority area, in tabular form; the number of properties that are waiting for rate assessments for six months or less, six to12 months, 12 to18 months, 18 to 24 months and over 24 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31799/16]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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83. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of properties that are currently waiting for rate assessments by the Valuation Office in each local authority area, in tabular form; the number of properties in the brackets; average square footage of each property awaiting assessment in a number of categories (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31800/16]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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84. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of staff employed in rates assessments in the Valuation Office at present; if the current number is sufficient to meet demand for rates assessments for properties; her plans to increase the number of staff employed in rates assessments at the Valuation Office; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31801/16]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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85. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to eliminate or reduce current delays in rates assessments by the Valuation Office for properties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31802/16]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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86. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of properties that are currently waiting for rate assessments in each local authority area from the Valuation Office; the potential loss to each local authorities affected by the delays in assessing properties for rates; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31803/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 81 to 86, inclusive, together.

The Commissioner of Valuation, who is independent in the exercise of his functions, has overall responsibility under the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015 for the maintenance of valuation lists of all commercial properties in the State. This is done by using two statutory valuation processes known as “revaluation” and “revision”. Firstly, revaluation is a process where all rateable properties in a Local Authority area are valued periodically by reference to a single valuation date. After the first revaluation of a Local Authority area is completed, revaluation is then scheduled to take place every five to ten years to reflect changes in economic circumstances since the last revaluation took place. Revision, on the other hand, is intended to reflect structural changes to individual properties or the addition to the valuation lists of new properties between revaluations.

The national revaluation programme currently underway is the first general revaluation of all commercial property in the state since the middle of the 19th century. It is a very significant undertaking involving the valuation of some 146,000 commercial rateable properties. Completing the first revaluation and getting properties in every Local Authority area onto the five to ten year cycle of revaluations provided for in the legislation represents a sea-change for the valuation system.

All rateable properties in the Dublin, Waterford and Limerick local authority areas are now re-valued. In addition, 13 public utilities representing some of the largest ratepayers in the State have been revalued on a global basis. This represents approximately 57% of the national rateable valuation base in monetary value terms or 33% in numerical terms. The Commissioner has recently made valuation orders for the revaluation of 10 Local Authorities in respect of some 29,500 commercial properties. The revaluation in two of these County Council areas, Carlow and Kilkenny (5,000 properties approx), is being conducted on a pilot basis using external resources (outsourcing). This approach was provided for in the Valuation (Amendment) Act 2015, in order to augment the in-house capacity of the Valuation Office.

The Valuation (Amendment) Act 2015 also provided for the Commissioner to conduct a revaluation with the assistance of the occupiers of property using elements of self-assessment. This provision – known as “Occupier Assisted Valuation” - is one of the provisions intended to assist the acceleration of the national revaluation programme. This approach, though readily used as a means of assessment in personal and corporate taxation codes, has not been used in comparable jurisdictions in relation to the valuation of commercial properties for rating purposes. The Commissioner is in the course of establishing a pilot project in County Laois (2,300 properties approx) using ”Occupier Assisted Valuation”. The Valuation Office has conducted the necessary statutory consultations with the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government and with Laois County Council and is developing appropriate technical and statutory systems of valuation which will underpin the pilot project and allow for its initiation in 2017.

While the revaluation programme has been underway, the Valuation Office has continued to carry out revision work and, during 2015, some 5,438 applications for revision were processed. Also, any backlog of revision work is cleared during the revaluation of a local authority area. As already mentioned, revision of valuation is the process by which the valuation lists are maintained between revaluations and reflects changes to property of a structural nature and the addition to the valuation lists of new properties. The number of outstanding applications for revision of valuation received by the Valuation Office on a yearly basis is indicated on Table 1 hereunder. Table 2 shows the current age profile of these applications. The provision of information regarding the square footage of these properties is not possible at this time as this information is obtained during the revision process.

It has been a priority for the Valuation Office to enter into collaborative arrangements to ensure that an efficient and effective revision programme can be conducted on an ongoing basis with all Local Authorities. The Commissioner has implemented a number of initiatives to enhance the capacity of the Valuation Office to deliver a high-quality and timely revision service. During 2015, the Office carried out a revision pilot project involving four local authorities which was designed to improve data exchange with local authorities in general. Following the conclusion of the pilot project, this approach is being rolled out to all local authorities and online services have been enhanced to facilitate more effective data exchanges between those bodies and the Valuation Office.

I am advised by the Valuation Office that the current number of valuer staff engaged on valuation work is 71. The Valuation Office recently commissioned a review of its revaluation and revision processes which was jointly conducted by the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI). That review made a number of recommendations in line with best international practice and which are based on methodologies and processes for handling statutory valuation work in other jurisdictions. These recommendations will now form the basis of an implementation plan which is being put in place by the Valuation Office. The review also proposed, among other recommendations, the establishment of a separate, permanently resourced, Revision Unit which would be responsible for the processing of revision work and the ongoing assessment of properties falling under this category. In this regard, following the receipt of a business case from the Valuation Office seeking the provision of additional funding to allow for the establishment of such a dedicated Revision Unit, I was pleased to be in a position to announce as part of the recent budgetary provisions, the allocation of an additional €750,000 for this purpose. This development, which will involve the appointment of a number of additional staff, in tandem with the rollout of improved online facilities and enhanced processes and procedures, is specifically intended to address backlogs in conducting revision assessments and to enable the Valuation Office to provide timely and high quality revision services to Local Authorities and ratepayers into the future.

The Deputy has requested information in relation to the potential loss to each local authority affected by delays in assessing properties for rates. The collection of rates is solely a matter for local authorities and the financial implications of the revision programme is a matter for individual local authorities. The amount would ultimately be dependent on each authority's Annual Rate on Valuation (ARV) and its overall income and expenditure decided on at its annual budget meeting. The Commissioner has no mandate or part to play in these arrangements.

Table 1 - Revision Applications Outstanding by Year Received

Table 2 - Revision Requests as at 14th October 2016