Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

497. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department's policy recognises that the charging of rates on registered childcare provider’s operating from their own family home would act as a major disincentive to such care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65558/25]

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

518. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he accepts that commercial rates should not be charged to registered childcare providers in circumstances where that care is provided in the family home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65557/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 497 and 518 together.

Tailte Éireann is an independent Government agency and provides a property registration system, property valuation service, and national mapping and surveying infrastructure for the State. Tailte Éireann is independent in the exercise of its valuation functions under the Valuation Act 2001, as amended (the Act), and I, as the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, have no function in decisions in this regard.

Tailte Éireann has overall responsibility under the Act, for the maintenance of all Valuation Lists used by local authorities in the calculation of rates liability. Under the Act, all property is rateable unless it falls into one of the exempt categories listed in Schedule 4 of the Act. There is a very specific range of exemptions that can be applied, and Tailte Éireann has no discretionary latitude to grant exemptions not covered by Schedule 4.

Paragraph 22 of Schedule 4 of the Act, which was inserted by the Valuation (Amendment) Act 2015, refers specifically to early childhood care and education facilities and provides an exemption for:

“Any land, building or part of a building used exclusively for the provision of early childhood care and education, and occupied by a body which is not established and the affairs of which are not conducted for the purpose of making a private profit.”

Therefore, while the Act provides that early childhood care and education facilities that are operated on a not-for-profit basis are exempt from rates, it does not provide a general exemption from rates for all childcare or childminding facilities operating on a for profit basis. To avoid ambiguity, if an early childhood care and education facility is operated on a for-profit basis, then they do not fulfil the criteria for exemption under Paragraph 22.

In terms of childminding in the home, Section 3 of the Act defines “domestic premises” as “any premises used as a dwelling which is neither a “mixed premises” nor an “apart-hotel””. If the property is used partly as a dwelling to a significant extent and partly for another purpose it may be a “mixed premises”, as defined in the Act, and consequently may not qualify for the “domestic premises” exemption in accordance with Paragraph 6 of Schedule 4 of the Act.

As a matter of course, Tailte Éireann examines all properties on their individual merits by reference to the relevant statutory provisions governing the operation of the Act and case law arising from the independent Valuation Tribunal and the Higher Courts.

There are a number of avenues of redress for an occupier of rateable property who is dissatisfied with a determination of valuation by Tailte Éireann made under the provisions of the Valuation Act 2001, as amended. Firstly, before a determination is made, there is a right to make representations to Tailte Éireann in relation to a proposed valuation. Later in the process, if the occupier is still dissatisfied with the determination, there is a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal which is an independent body set up for the purpose of hearing appeals against determinations of Tailte Éireann. There is a right of appeal to the Higher Courts on a point of law.