Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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341. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status as of 29 September 2020 regarding a local government funding baseline review which sought to inform the distribution of such funding that could become available for general operational purposes; and if he was consulted regarding the deferral of the valuation date for local property tax from November 2020 until November 2021. [28372/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In 2018, the then Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform initiated an Inter-Departmental review of Local Property Tax (LPT). The purpose of the review was to inform the Minister in relation to any actions he may recommend to Government concerning the overall yield from LPT and its contribution to total tax revenue.

As the LPT review did not primarily concern itself with the allocation mechanism to individual authorities, it was important that a framework be established regarding the allocation of any additional funding that might be available to the local government sector as a consequence of any changes to LPT. Therefore, in May 2018, the then Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government separately initiated a Local Government Funding (Baseline) Review to help inform the distribution of any such funding that may become available for general operational purposes. These options can be further considered as and when changes to LPT are advanced by Government. In this regard, I will consider the available options in parallel with implementation of the commitment in the Programme for Government that those local authorities with a lower LPT base are adjusted via an annual national equalisation fund paid from the Exchequer.

It should be noted that the Minister for Finance has recently decided to defer the next valuation date for (LPT) liabilities from 1 November 2020 to 1 November 2021. This decision is a matter for the Minister for Finance and is primarily a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning there was no formal consultation with my Department, nor was a formal consultation necessary.