2025-12-09

3. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of people that have filed an updated valuation for the LPT that have gone up a band; the average additional cost for those households; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64573/25]

The local property tax, LPT, increase kicked in last month. The Government has ensured that virtually every household in the State has experienced a property tax increase. Thousands faced a substantial increase as they were pushed into higher valuation bands. Now that the households that are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis have gotten their letters through the door telling them that their property tax is going up, how many have filed updated valuations for the LPT that have gone up a band? What is the average additional cost to those households that have moved into an increased band?

I am advised by Revenue that LPT returns for the next valuation period of 2026 to 2030 have been filed and are fully up to date in respect of over 1.4 million properties. Filing arrangements are being finalised in respect of a further 202,278 local authority and approved housing body properties. There are approximately 40,000 open correspondence queries on hand with Revenue presently, including postal queries and paper returns. While these queries delay filing, the liable persons are considered compliant. Furthermore, payment arrangements are in place for approximately 262,000 additional properties where returns are not yet filed. While the return filing deadline passed on 12 November, property owners are still making their best effort to file their returns as these continue to be received by Revenue. The due date for payment of the 2026 LPT for those property owners who do not yet have a payment option in place is 9 January 2026. While detailed analysis of the returns filed will take some time, Revenue publishes preliminary statistics on LPT on a regular basis on its website. I am further advised by Revenue that based on data published on 18 September it is estimated that 4% of properties will move up one band under the 2026-2030 LPT structure. An increase in LPT base charges for properties valued up to €525,000 is estimated at between €5 and €25 extra annually for most property owners. Table 6 of the LPT technical paper provides the estimated average increase in LPT liability by local authority and band. The LPT technical paper is available on the statistics section of Revenue’s website. A detailed report will be available once a comprehensive analysis of the returns filed for the valuation period is completed. I am advised by officials and by Revenue that we are a little bit ahead on the filings than we were the last time there was an evaluation period. The evaluations are coming in and the answer is that about 4% of properties will move up one band, and an increase in LPT-based charges for properties valued up to €525,000 is estimated at between €5 and €25 extra annually for most property owners.

The information the Minister is giving me is outdated, obviously. As he mentioned, it goes back to September. Since then the letters have gone out, the evaluations have been done and the returns have been filed. I assume going from his answer that he does not have information as to what percentage of people actually went up a band. I raise this issue because the Government introduced legislation that increased the band valuation by 20%, but when that legislatoin was introduced, house prices had already gone up 29%. In counties such as Donegal, Cavan, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo, they had already gone up 40%. All of those property owners are going to be hammered as a result of what the Government has done. Many houses are going to be moving up a band as a result of that. There is an issue if, for example, property owners go from the lower band up to the next band and they are being asked to pay an extra €140. Is the Minister telling me that he has no new information despite the fact that 1.4 million people have actually filed the returns? Is he saying he cannot tell me today what percentage has moved up a band or not?

I am genuinely sharing with the Deputy and I am happy to see if I can get him even more up-to-date information. I had a discussion on this earlier today as well. I am advised by Revenue that it is estimated that around 4% of properties will move up one band. These are the latest data I have available here, but I will try and get more up-to-date for the Deputy as soon as that is available. Let me try to provide him with that. This is genuinely the up-to-date information I have. Around 2.1 million properties are in scope and circa 1.9 million are now in compliance in terms of filing. I will see if there are more up-to-date figures available from Revenue and pass them on directly to the Deputy.

Does the Minister accept that the legislation that underpins the revaluation increased the bands by 20% and that official statistics in counties such as Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo and Galway also had house prices increasing by 40%? The Minister referenced Revenue date published back in September. It estimated that 15% of all households in Galway would actually increase a band. There will be major differentiation across regions. Everybody is paying higher local property tax under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Every single person is paying more. Everybody's property tax increased as a result of this but some had their tax substantially increased. At a time developers are being given hundreds of millions of euro in tax breaks by the Minister's party, people out there are being hit again and again as a result of this revaluation.

We have different views on property tax. Although I am open to correction, I think the Deputy used the property tax figures in Sinn Féin's alternative budget figures-----

We were phasing it out.

That is okay, but we are not. We are committed to the local property tax as a sustainable way of trying to fund local services. We have a situation where more is now being returned to local authorities. Council chambers across the country, including the Deputy's own councillors, engaging in discussions about what to do with that revenue base that the local authorities now have. We have also increased the level of discretion that they have, which is quite important. If we give local authorities a revenue base, allowing our local councillors to determine what best to do and to have a greater level of variance, is a good thing to do. To reflect on some of the points the Deputy made, in some parts of the country there can be particular local reasons, particular anomalies or particular needs that councillors may wish to be able to reflect on as well. This is an example of a tax that has bedded in pretty well and most people in this country accept that it is an important part of funding our local services.