VA88.0.101 – Irish Management Institute (1)

• Appeal Number: VA88.0.101
• Year: 1989
• Date: 20 February 1989
• Court: Valuation Tribunal
• Respondent: Commissioner of Valuation
• Appellant: Irish Management Institute (1)

Appeal No. VA88/0/101

AN BINSE LUACHÁLA

VALUATION TRIBUNAL

AN tACHT LUACHÁLA, 1988

VALUATION ACT, 1988

Irish Management Institute APPELLANT

and

Commissioner of Valuation RESPONDENT

RE: Irish Management Institute Premises at Balally, Dundrum-Sandyford, Co. Dublin

B E F O R E

Hugh J O'Flaherty S.C. Chairman

Mary Devins Solicitor

Brian O'Farrell Valuer

JUDGMENT OF THE VALUATION TRIBUNAL

ISSUED ON THE 20TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1989

By notice of appeal dated 18th day of August 1988, the appellants appealed against the

respondent's decision fixing the rateable valuation of the above described hereditaments at

£2,400.

Donal O'Buachalla & Co Ltd of 86 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 presented a written submission on

behalf of the appellants in October 1988. In the course of that submission a description of the

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buildings, the objects and the operations of the appellants were described. A previous appeal

heard by the President of the Circuit Court, Judge Neylon on the 26th May, 1978, was referred

to. On that occasion the learned President upheld the Commissioner's decision fixing the

rateable valuation at £2,400.

It was contended that the subject fulfils almost all of the criteria necessary to establish

entitlement to exemption from rates on the grounds of exclusive use for public purposes, and is,

in the main, precluded therefrom only because the activities carried on in it are directed towards

a particular class of person.

It was contended that the best comparison was Wesley College which is nearby; that other near

comparisons would be afforded by reference to analogous educational establishments which are

given preferential treatment under section 69 of the second schedule of the Local Government

(Dublin) Act, 1930. Having regard to the various classes set out therein, three are being relied on

now in support of the contention that the rateable value of £2,400 is unconscionably harsh,

inequitable and grossly excessive, and is capable of being supported only by the application of

wrong principles by the Commissioner, inter alia, by his insistence on regarding the subject as a

commercial enterprise to be valued and entered in the valuation lists in the ordinary way.

References was made to the Colleges of N.U.I and the Royal College of Surgeons but it appears

these are exempt on the basis that they are used exclusively for public purposes.

It was pointed out that Trinity College's entitlement to a reduction in valuation in the second

schedule to the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1980, is limited to the perimeter boundary of

the campus as it existed in 1930. Therefore, the most recent buildings

(a) The new library (1969) and

(b) The arts and social sciences building (1979).

do have this entitlement.