S.I. No. 355/2019 - Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 (Commencement) Order 2019

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 19th July, 2019.

The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by subsection (5) of section 28 of the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 (No. 24 of 2019), hereby orders as follows:

1. This Order may be cited as the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 (Commencement) Order 2019.

2. The 15^th day of July 2019 is appointed to be the day on which the following provisions of the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 (No. 24 of 2019) shall come into operation:

(a) sections 23, 24, 25 and 28;

(b) paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of section 21; and

(c) paragraph (d) of section 26.

GIVEN under my Official Seal of the Minister for Housing,

Planning and Local Government,

12 July, 2019.

MARY HURLEY,

A person authorised under section 15 of the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924 to authenticate the seal of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

This Order appoints 15 July 2019 as the date on which the specified provisions of the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 come into effect.

Section 23 is a technical amendment to the Planning and Development Act 2000 to provide one-off transitional arrangements to ensure that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government may issue a Direction to Regional Assemblies, if required, regarding their Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSES), where the RSES process commenced prior to the establishment of the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR).

Section 24 is a minor technical amendment to section 11 of the Planning and Development Acts relating to special provisions for Cork City and County Councils to extend the period for review of their county development plans to take account of the Southern Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy.

Section 25 provides a minor technical amendment to section 3 (1A) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 . It also amends section 19(5)(a) of that Act to provide an exemption from the Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) annual rent increase restriction in respect of the rent first set under the tenancy of a dwelling that is in, or is, a protected structure or a proposed protected structure within the meaning of the Planning and Development Act 2000 , provided that dwelling was not subject to a tenancy during the previous 12 months.

Section 28 is a standard provision setting out the short title, commencement, citation and construction of the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 .

Paragraphs (b) and (c) of section 21 amend the timeframes in sections 53 and 54 of the Valuation Acts 2001-2015 relating to the valuation process. Paragraph (d) of section 21 amends the formula in section 56 of the Valuation Acts 2001-2015 for calculating a rate limitation order applying to a local authority in the year following revaluation.

Paragraph (d) of section 26 provides for the substitution of section 37 of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 which applies, as appropriate, the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2019 to licences between students and the owners of student-specific accommodation. The substitution provides greater clarity to the text of section 37 of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 , particularly in relation to the legal definition of ‘owner’ of student-specific accommodation.