VA88.0.011 & 263 – Irish Oil Refining Plc

• Appeal Number: VA88.0.011 & 263
• Date: 10 November 1989
• Court: Valuation Tribunal
• Respondent: Commissioner of Valuation
• Appellant: Irish Oil Refining Plc

Appeal No. VA88/0/011 & 263

AN BINSE LUACHÁLA

VALUATION TRIBUNAL

AN tACHT LUACHÁLA, 1988

VALUATION ACT, 1988

Irish Oil Refining Plc APPELLANT

and

Commissioner of Valuation RESPONDENT

RE: Oil Refinery situated in the townland of Corkbeg and Electoral Division of Corkbeg of

which the rated occupier is Irish Refining Plc, held in fee simple, Co. Cork

B E F O R E

Hugh J O'Flaherty S.C. Chairman

Paul Butler Barrister

Brian O'Farrell Valuer

JUDGMENT OF THE VALUATION TRIBUNAL

ISSUED ON THE 10TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1989

By notice of appeal dated 10th August, 1988, Barry M. O'Meara and Son Solicitors on behalf

of Irish Oil Refining Plc appealed against the revised rateable valuation of £23,281.50 on the

above described hereditaments on the following grounds:

1. That the rateable valuation of £23,821.50 is excessive and inequitable, and bad in law.

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2. That the rateable valuation is bad in law in that it was arbitrarily fixed without

reference to established law and practice and contrary to natural justice, inasmuch as

that, in fixing the rateable valuation of £23,821.50 in question, the fundamental

changes which had occurred were ignored, consideration of which changes were

essential to the determination of a uniform valuation as statutorily defined and

directed for the subject.

3. That, in fixing the said valuation, the Commissioner of Valuation erred in law in

failing to have any or any proper regard to the following:

(a) that the subject was offered for sale on the open marked and purchased by the Irish

Government as a going concern in an "arms-length" transaction for the sum of £6

million, in October 1982.

(b) that in or about the year of 1982, in the same district electoral division as the

subject, the Trabolgan Holiday Centre, owned and occupied by Trabolgan Homes

Limited, was extended and developed at a cost of £13.5 million in addition to the cost

of purchase to that company of the existing holiday centre and lands, and that a

revised valuation of £2,208.00 was affixed by the Commissioner of Valuation for the

said Trabolgan Holiday Centre so extended as aforesaid.

4. That there were no changed circumstances which entitled the Commissioner of

Valuation to alter, amend or revise the valuation of the subject fixed by the Circuit

Court in 1984 and 1985 and adopted and affirmed by him in August, 1986.

5. That the said rateable valuation is bad in law in that rateable valuations have been

allotted or attributed to items which are not rateable hereditaments or, alternatively, in

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arriving at the net annual value, the Commissioner of Valuation has erred in law in

including therein the value or values of items which are not rateable hereditaments.

6. That the Commissioner of Valuation erred in law in valuing or including in the

rateable valuation or assigning an annual value or a rateable valuation to non- rateable

plant and machinery, which must be excluded from the valuation, pursuant to Section

7 of the Rateable Property Ireland (Amendment) Act, 1860, as amended by Sect. 8 (1)

of the Valuation Act, 1986.

7. That, without prejudice to the generality of the forgoing, the Commissioner of

Valuation erred in law in valuing or assigning an annual value or a rateable valuation

to hereditaments and/or tenements which are not within the subject, and including the

same in the valuation.

By Notice of Appeal dated the 23rd August, 1988, the Secretary of Cork County Council

appealed against the decision of the Commissioner of Valuation in respect of the above

mentioned hereditaments and the grounds of appeal were stated to be:

failure to adequately revise, increase and update to current levels the valuation of the

oil refinery and grounds and to value commercially developed lands as such and to

take account of the 1986 Act.

The hearing took place in two stages; there was an initial hearing in Dublin lasting 2 days

and there was a resumed hearing in Cork. Prior to the first hearing, Donal O'Buachalla &

Company Limited of 86 Merrion Square South, Dublin 2, Valuers, Rating and Property

Consultants, had presented a written submission on the 5th July, 1989 and that had included,

also, a precis of the evidence that would be given by Mr. P.J. Goggin, head of Engineering of