PART II

Integrated Area Plans and Qualifying Areas

7. —(1) A local authority or, at the request of that local authority, an authorised company, may prepare and submit to the Minister one or more plans (which or each of which shall be known, and is in this Act referred to, as an “integrated area plan”) in respect of an area or areas within the functional area of the local authority and, if the authority or company thinks fit and subject to that subsection, an area referred to in subsection (2).

(2) The area in respect of which an integrated area plan may be prepared may include a part or parts of the functional area or areas of one or more other local authorities if that authority or those authorities consent to that part or those parts being so included.

(3) In preparing an integrated area plan, a local authority or an authorised company, as the case may be, shall have regard to any criteria which the Minister specifies in writing to be criteria to which a local authority or company shall have regard to in preparing such a plan and those criteria may include criteria with respect to the social and economic renewal of the area to which the plan relates.

(4) An integrated area plan shall consist of a written statement and a plan indicating the objectives for—

(a) the social and economic renewal, on a sustainable basis, of the area to which the plan relates, and

(b) improvements in the physical environment of that area.

(5) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (4), an integrated area plan shall specify the physical, economic, social and other issues which, in the opinion of the local authority or company, are relevant to the renewal of the area to which it relates.

(6) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (4), an integrated area plan may, where appropriate, in relation to the area to which it relates—

(a) include—

(i) objectives for the renewal, preservation, conservation, restoration, development or redevelopment of the streetscape, layout and building pattern, including the co-ordination and upgrading of shop frontages,

(ii) guidelines with respect to the heights of buildings and to building materials, density of developments and the treatment of spaces between buildings,

(iii) objectives relating to the preservation of the natural, architectural and archaeological heritage,

(iv) objectives for promoting the development or redevelopment of derelict sites or vacant sites,

(v) objectives for employment, training and education, particularly for persons resident in the area,

(vi) objectives for the improvement of existing residential communities and the development of new such communities, including the development of housing for people of different social backgrounds,

(vii) objectives for the development of community facilities,

(viii) objectives for the improvement of the environment, infrastructure and transportation,

and

(b) indicate the nature and extent of the investment required to achieve the objectives specified in the plan.

(7) In preparing an integrated area plan the local authority or authorised company concerned may consult with such other persons as appear to it to be concerned with or interested in the matter and shall have regard to any submissions or observations made to it by such persons in the course of that consultation.

8. —(1) An integrated area plan submitted to the Minister under section 7 may contain, or be accompanied by, recommendations by the local authority or authorised company concerned that—

(a) a part or parts of the area to which the plan relates ought to be a qualifying area for the purposes of one or more sections of Chapter 7 of Part 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 ,

(b) the whole of such an area ought to be a qualifying area for the purposes of one or more of the following sections of the said Chapter 7, namely sections 372G, 372H and 372I.

(2) In making any recommendation referred to in subsection (1), the local authority or authorised company concerned shall have regard to the following matters—

(a) the consistency between the types of development that are likely to be carried out in the area or areas to which the recommendations relate (“the relevant types of development”) and the relevant objectives of the integrated area plan,

(b) the significance of the recommendations for the attainment of the objectives of the integrated area plan generally,

(c) the market conditions in the area or areas concerned as respects the supply of, and current and anticipated demand for, the relevant types of development, and

(d) the nature and extent of any impediments to the carrying out of the relevant types of development.

9. —Having considered an integrated area plan submitted to him or her under section 7 and any recommendations referred to in section 8 which are contained in or have accompanied the plan, the Minister may recommend to the Minister for Finance that he or she make, with respect to the matters concerned, an order under paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of section 372B (1) of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 .

10. —(1) In this section “relevant rates leviable”, in respect of a premises to which this section applies, means—

(a) in case the Commissioner of Valuation determines that the valuation of that premises, after, where appropriate, any apportionment under subsection (6) has been made, is wholly attributable to the erection, enlargement or improvement concerned of such premises having been made, the rates leviable on that valuation, or

(b) in case the Commissioner of Valuation determines that the valuation of that premises, after, where appropriate, any such apportionment has been made, is only partly attributable to the erection, enlargement or improvement concerned of such premises having been made, so much of the rates leviable on that valuation as relates to the part of that valuation that is attributable to that erection, enlargement or improvement.

(2) Having regard to the objectives specified in an integrated area plan, a rating authority may decide to remit, in the years specified in subsection (3), the relevant rates leviable by it in respect of a premises to which this section applies and, if a rating authority makes such a decision, that decision shall operate to require the authority to remit, to the extent specified in this section, the said rates in every one of those years.

(3) The years mentioned in subsection (2) are:

(a) the local financial year (in the Table to this section referred to as the “first year”) next following that in which the valuation of the premises concerned (being the valuation made next after the erection, enlargement or improvement concerned of those premises has been made) comes into force, and

(b) the next nine local financial years (in the Table to this section referred to, respectively, as the “second year”, “third year”, “fourth year” and so on).

(4) The amount (expressed as a percentage of the amount of the relevant rates leviable) by which the relevant rates leviable in respect of a premises in a local financial year shall be remitted by a rating authority under this section shall be the amount specified in the second column of the Table to this section opposite the mention of the year concerned in the first column of that Table.

(5) A remission of rates under this section shall not be granted more than once in respect of the same erection, enlargement or improvement of premises.

(6) Where properties are not separately valued under the Valuation Acts, the Commissioner of Valuation may, on the application of the rating authority, apportion to the premises concerned to which this section applies such part as he or she thinks proper of the rateable valuation of the property in which the premises are comprised.

(7) The making by a rating authority of a decision under subsection (2) shall be a reserved function.

(8) This section applies to premises which are situate wholly within the boundaries of the area to which an integrated area plan relates and which the rating authority concerned is satisfied were erected, enlarged or improved within such period as the Minister specifies by order for the purposes of this section.

(9) The Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this section (including an order under this subsection).

(10) Every order under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made.

Table

11. —(1) No relief from income tax or corporation tax, as the case may be, may be granted under Chapter 7 of Part 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 , in respect of the construction, refurbishment or conversion of a building, structure or house unless the local authority or authorised company which prepared the integrated area plan concerned has certified in writing, in a manner specified by the Minister, that such construction, refurbishment or conversion is consistent with the objectives of that plan, being the particular plan concerned that was taken into consideration by the Minister in the making by him or her to the Minister for Finance of the recommendations referred to in section 9 .

(2) In this section “integrated area plan concerned” means the integrated area plan, within the boundary of the area to which that plan relates the relevant building, structure or house is situate.

12. —(1) Where the Minister for Finance makes an order under section 372B of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 , directing that an area or areas shall be a qualifying area for the purposes of one or more sections of Chapter 7 of Part 10 of that Act, the local authority or authorised company concerned shall make such arrangements as it considers appropriate in the particular circumstances for monitoring the implementation of the integrated area plan concerned and, in doing so, the authority or company shall have regard to such guidelines as may, from time to time, be issued by the Minister for the purposes of this section.

(2) A local authority or authorised company, as the case may be, shall, in relation to each year in which it causes the monitoring referred to in subsection (1) to be carried out, make, as soon as may be after the end of that year, a report in writing to the Minister of the results of that monitoring.

(3) In this section—

“integrated area plan concerned” means the integrated area plan, within the boundary of the area to which that plan relates the area or areas referred to in subsection (1) are situate;

“local authority or authorised company concerned” means the local authority or authorised company that prepared the integrated area plan concerned.