Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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641. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to provide the details and addresses of all properties in the ownership of the Department that are absolved from paying commercial rates to the relevant local authority of the location that the property is in; to provide a similar list of properties for agencies or bodies under its remit that are also absolved from commercial rates, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46444/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department does not own any property and therefore has no properties of the nature specified in the Question. The bodies under the aegis of my Department, with the exception of the Office of Public Works (OPW), also do not own any property.

As the Deputy will be aware, the OPW owns a substantial portfolio of property. Its own occupation of property is not rateable under the Schedule (see below), nor is the occupation of other Departments and Offices of State who occupy properties owned in the name of the Commissioners of Public Works. If an occupier of a State owned property is not exempted under the Schedule, then it is a matter for that occupier to pay any commercial rates that may be due to the local authority in its area.

Property directly occupied by any Department or Office of State is not rateable under the Valuation Acts 2001-2023. Schedule 4 of the Act lists categories of properties not rateable and this also includes property occupied by a school, college, university, institute of technology or any other educational institution, and any building or part of a building used exclusively as a community hall. It is the occupier of the property that is liable to pay commercial rates.