Valuation Act, 1988

Global valuation of public utility undertakings.

4.—(1) (a) The Minister for Finance, after consultation with the Minister for the Environment and any other Minister of the Government who appears to the Minister for Finance to be concerned, may by order direct the Commissioner of Valuation to provide for the determination of the valuation of the properties taken as a whole, wherever situated, of a specified public utility undertaking or of public utility undertakings of a specified description and specify the date by reference to which the determination is to be made and the date by which the determination is to be made. Every such valuation is referred to in this section as a “global valuation”.

(b) Every global valuation determined under subsection (1) (a) shall include all of the hereditaments which are used for the primary purposes of the undertaking whether or not such hereditaments are already revised and entered in the Valuation Lists and any such valuations as are already included in the Valuation Lists shall be deleted from such lists.

(c) Such property of a specified undertaking as, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Valuation, is for a purpose other than any of the primary purposes of that undertaking, shall be excluded in determining the global valuation.

(2) The net annual value of the undertaking shall be five per cent of the effective capital value of the property of that undertaking, including property specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.

(3) The Minister for Finance may, after such consultation as is provided for by subsection (1) of this section, by order amend the Second Schedule to this Act.

(4) The effective capital value of the undertaking shall be the aggregate of—

(a) the site values subsumed in that undertaking,

(b) the depreciated replacement cost of other property of the undertaking, that is to say, the cost of replacement of the property reduced where appropriate to allow for its age, condition and obsolescence and for any other factor, the effect of which is to reduce its value to less than the cost of replacement,

(c) the value of any easement or other right appurtenant or appendant to any property of the undertaking,

(d) the value of any right of the undertaking to transmit radio, television or telecommunications signals.

(5) Subsections (1), (2) and (3) of this section shall have effect notwithstanding section 11 of the Act of 1852 but subject to section 5 of the Valuation Act, 1986 .

(6) The undertaking shall be treated for the purposes of this section as occupying a rateable hereditament in every rating district in which its services are available or in which its property is situated.

(7) The Commissioner of Valuation shall apportion the global valuation of an undertaking, determined or revised under this section, between rating authorities in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall, after consultation with the Minister for the Environment, by order prescribe and the amount so apportioned to any rating authority shall be the valuation of the property of the undertaking in the area of that authority.

(8) The Commissioner of Valuation shall cause the global valuation of an undertaking to be revised in the fifth year after the determination of the valuation or the previous revision or sooner if the Minister for Finance, after such consultation as is provided for by subsection (1) of this section, or the undertaking, so requests.

(9) Every undertaking to which an order under subsection (1) of this section applies shall, within two months of being requested to do so, supply the Commissioner of Valuation with such information as he may require for the purpose of the exercise of his functions under this section.

(10) The Commissioner of Valuation, upon having caused a determination or revision under this section to be made, shall immediately notify the undertaking and the Minister for the Environment thereof and an appeal to the Commissioner may be made under sections 19 and 31 of the Act of 1852 and the provisions of sections 20 and 21 of that Act shall have effect.

(11) The undertaking and the Minister for the Environment shall each have the right to appeal to the Tribunal against any determination made by the Commissioner of Valuation under section 20 of the Act of 1852 by notice in writing served within three months of being notified thereof by the Commissioner of Valuation.

(12) The Minister for Finance may by order revoke or amend an order under this section.

(13) This section shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other provision in the Valuation Acts.

(14) Whenever an order is proposed to be made under subsection (3) of this section a draft of the order shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.