Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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99. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she has satisfied herself with the time period within which Valuations Office Ireland responds to requests for the revaluation of properties, which now passes two years; her views on whether the office requires extra resources; if so, if she will provide extra resources; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20839/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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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 which are used by Local Authorities in the calculation of rates due from individual ratepayers. 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. Following the first revaluation, subsequent revaluations of each rating authority area will then be carried out on a cyclical basis no sooner than five years and no later than ten years after the first revaluation (Section 25 of the Valuation Act 2001). 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. In line with best international practice, the valuation element of the rating system should have both a comprehensive revaluation and revision programme running in tandem.

The revaluation provisions in the Valuation Acts provide for the revaluation of all rateable property within a rating authority area so as to reflect changes in value due to economic factors, differential movements in property values or other external factors such as changes in the business environment or infrastructural changes in the vicinity of a property. The Valuation Office is currently engaged in a national revaluation programme, the immediate objective of which is to ensure that the first revaluation of all rating authority areas in over 150 years is conducted across the country, as soon as possible, and on a phased basis. It is a very significant undertaking and involves the valuation of some 150,000 commercial rateable properties. Revaluation is an important instrument in redressing historical anomalies in relation to commercial rates.

While the revaluation programme has been underway, the Valuation Office has continued to carry out revision work and, during 2016, some 3,297 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.

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. To this effect, 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 2016, the Valuation Office’s new approach based on more extensive data sharing was rolled out with all local authorities and online services have been enhanced to facilitate more effective data exchanges between those bodies and the Valuation Office.

The Valuation Office recently commissioned a review of its revaluation and revision processes which was jointly conducted by the Institute of Revenue 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.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that following the receipt of a business case from the Valuation Office seeking the provision of additional funding to allow for the establishment of a dedicated Unit to deal specifically with the ongoing revision programme, I was pleased to be in a position to announce as part of the budgetary provisions for 2017, the allocation of an additional €750,000 to the Valuation Office for this purpose. This development, which involves 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.