Rates system “is broken”
SLIGO County Council’s Head of Finance has insisted the Council has the right system in place to find new properties for rates valuation.
Marie Whelan was responding to Councillor Declan Bree’s call for a full investigation into why Council management failed to notify the Commissioner of Valuation of two wind farms in Sligo which have been operating for several years.
“I don’t accept there was a failure by Sligo County Council to carry out their duties,” said Ms Whelan.
Cllr Bree said that the Assistant Secretary of the Community and Local Government Division Paul Lemass told Council Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes in a letter 30th January that the Council did not bring these wind farms to the attention of the Valuations Office.
“Sligo County Council has lost hundreds of thousands of Euro. Why did management of the Council not inform the Valuation Office about them? I hope there’ll be an enquiry. It would appear that there could be more valuations we’ve missed out on. What kind of mechanism is in place because it obviously doesn’t work,” he said to Ms Whelan.
“Why wasn’t it done? I want to know why. It’s a simple question,” he added.
Director of Services Dorothy Clarke told Cllr Bree that there had been a “significant delay” from the Valuation Office in getting back to them.
“I do think the system is working and it has worked to date,” she said.
“If management think the system is working they’re wrong,” replied Cllr Bree.
“There are small business holders having to pay rates and then there are huge multi- national companies who don’t have to pay for years. I think the system is wrong and broken,” he said.
“My concern is that there might be other operators out there,” he added.
Mayor of Sligo Municipal District Cllr Marie Casserly said she welcomed the feedback from the Council. “You welcome it? You’re entitled to think that,” said Cllr Bree.
Dorothy Clarke said there was no confirmation of how much money had been lost to the Council and told Cllr Bree he knew the amount of work and stress the Council had been under for the last number of years.
“So it takes seven years to inform and we lose ¤ 100,000 and you think that’s working?” said Cllr Bree. “Mr Lemass is to be complimented for bring this to our attention because if he hadn’t we wouldn’t be made aware of it,” he added.