LOCAL GOVERNMENT (RATES) ACT, 1970

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR SCHEMES BY RATING AUTHORITIES FOR THE WAIVER OF RATES, TO PROVIDE FOR THE PAYMENT OF RATES IN INSTALMENTS IN CERTAIN CASES, AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE MATTERS AFORESAID. [24th February, 1970.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

“the Minister” means the Minister for Local Government;

“rate” means either the county rate or the municipal rate, as may be appropriate;

“rating authority” has the meaning assigned to it by section 2 of the Local Government Act, 1946.

2 Schemes by rating authorities for waiver of rates.

2.—(1) Subject to such regulations as may be made under section 5 of this Act, a rating authority may from time to time make and carry out a scheme providing for the waiver by the authority of all or portion of the rates due to it by ratepayers or classes of ratepayers or in respect of hereditaments of a class or classes specified in the scheme.

• (2) Subject to such regulations as may be made under section 5 of this Act, a rating authority may amend a scheme under this section.

• (3) Where rates (or portion thereof) are waived in accordance with a scheme under this section, the liability of a person to pay those rates (or portion thereof) and any obligation on a rating authority to collect those rates (or portion thereof) shall cease.

• (4) The cost of implementing a scheme under this section shall form part of the expenses of a local authority for the purposes of any provision relating to the determining, making, levying and assessment of rates.

• (5) The making of a scheme under this section or an amendment to any such scheme shall be a reserved function for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955, or the Acts relating to the management of county boroughs, as may be appropriate.

• (6) A decision by a rating authority as to whether or not a person is qualified for relief under a scheme under this section shall be final and conclusive.

• (7) In the case of the council of a county, the expenses of the council in relation to a scheme under this section shall be charged on the whole of the county, exclusive of every borough and urban district therein.

3 Application to certain hereditaments.

3.—Where a hereditament is let at a rent which includes a payment for rates in respect of the hereditament and all or portion of those rates are waived by a rating authority in accordance with a scheme under section 2 of this Act, the rent shall be reduced by an amount equal to the amount of the rates so waived, and any sum paid (whether before or after the waiver) in excess of the reduced rent shall be recoverable as a simple contract debt by the tenant by whom it was paid or his legal personal representative from the landlord to whom it was paid or his legal personal representative.

4 Payment of rates by instalments.

4.—(1) Notwithstanding any other enactment, the rated occupier of a hereditament belonging to a class to which this section applies may, subject to compliance with such conditions as may from time to time be specified by the appropriate rating authority, pay rates to that authority by instalments in respect of that hereditament.

• (2) This section applies to the following classes—

• (a) hereditaments consisting wholly or mainly of a dwelling,

• (b) hereditaments consisting wholly or mainly of agricultural land within the meaning of the Rates on Agricultural Land (Relief) Act, 1939, and

• (c) such other classes of hereditaments as may for the time being be determined by the appropriate rating authority with the consent of the Minister.

• (3) A determination by a rating authority under subsection (2) of this section shall be a reserved function for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955, or the Acts relating to the management of county boroughs, as may be appropriate.

5 Regulations.

5.—(1) The Minister may make regulations for the purposes of sections 2 and 4 of this Act.

• (2) Regulations for the purposes of section 2 of this Act may, in particular and without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section provide for all or any of the following matters—

• (a) the procedure to be followed by a rating authority in making or amending a scheme under the said section 2;

• (b) the period in relation to which such a scheme may be made;

• (c) providing that such a scheme shall require the consent (which may be general or particular) of the Minister;

• (d) the considerations to be taken into account by a rating authority in determining the classes of persons or the classes of hereditaments to which such a scheme shall apply;

• (e) the conditions subject to which rates (or portion thereof) may be waived under such a scheme;

• (f) the implementation of such a scheme;

• (g) providing for the application of such a scheme to small dwellings within the meaning of the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928, or to specified classes of such small dwellings, and for appropriate adjustment of rents under that Act.

• (3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, regulations for the purposes of section 4 of this Act may make provision for all or any of the following matters—

• (a) the specifying of conditions (including the specifying of conditions by a rating authority) subject to which a person may pay rates in instalments, and the conditions which may be so specified;

• (b) the manner of calculating the amount and number of instalments and the dates on which they are payable, including provision for payments in advance of the making of the rate;

• (c) the manner in which instalments shall be paid.

• (4) Different regulations may be made under this section for different circumstances and different classes of cases.

• (5) Every regulation under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

6 Act to apply to certain local financial years.

6.—(1) This Act shall have effect in relation to the local financial year which commenced on the 1st day of April, 1969, and to all subsequent local financial years.

• (2) Anything done by a rating authority, with the consent of the Minister, before and in anticipation of the enactment of this Act shall have and shall be deemed always to have had all such validity and effect as it would have had if this Act had been in force when that thing was done.

7 Short title.

7.—This Act may be cited as the Local Government (Rates) Act, 1970.