{"id":281182,"date":"2026-02-05T00:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/281182\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T00:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:25:09","slug":"norma-foley-opposes-commercial-rates-on-childminders-homes-but-its-beyond-her-control-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/281182\/","title":{"rendered":"Norma Foley opposes commercial rates on childminders\u2019 homes, but it\u2019s beyond her control \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Childminders should not have their homes assessed for commercial rates, Minister for Children Norma Foley<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

Foley said she has raised the issue with the Minister for Housing James Browne<\/a>, adding her view was \u201cclear\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t, and I think there needs to be, absolute clarity around it. We\u2019re trying to seek that clarity ourselves,\u201d she said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

The Irish Times revealed last year that a childminder from Newbridge, Co Kildare<\/a> had her house evaluated for commercial rates. <\/p>\n

Margaret Donohoe\u2019s home was assessed by Tailte \u00c9ireann<\/a> last October, who subsequently told her its evaluation had been passed on to Kildare County Council. She has yet to hear from the local authority about how much she may be required to pay.<\/p>\n

Tailte \u00c9ireann is a State agency which falls under the remit of the Department of Housing. It is responsible for property registrations, property valuation and national mapping services. Commercial rates are property-based charges levied on commercial and industrial properties, providing a source of funding for local authorities.<\/p>\n

Foley said if child-minding was taking place within the confines of a childminder\u2019s home, she did not believe they should be paying \u201cany rates\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s a different type of enterprise where there\u2019s been some addition on to the house or whatever, that\u2019s a different circumstance, but the principle of the minding of children within the home \u2013 I think, personally, they shouldn\u2019t be rated but that is outside my gift,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to seek clarity on that and I have raised it with the Minister for Housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> TD said letters had gone out to some childminders about having their homes assessed, but not to others. She spoke of the need for \u201cuniformity\u201d on the issue, acknowledging \u201cdifferent local authorities operate differently\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a divergence of view between what was introduced at one point, what was subsequently introduced and there is a very strong difference of opinion in terms of how the law should be interpreted and regulations should be interpreted,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a very clear view. I think we should be supportive of those who mind children within the confines of their own home, but that\u2019s still to be addressed by Tailte \u00c9ireann.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Minister for Housing has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

In recent correspondence to Childminding Ireland, Tailte \u00c9ireann said the Valuation (Amendment) Act 2015 provided that early-childhood care and education facilities operating on a not-for-profit basis were exempt from rates.<\/p>\n

However, it said the Act did not provide a general exemption from rates for such facilities operating on a for-profit basis.<\/p>\n

It said a property \u201cused partly as a dwelling to a significant extent and partly for another purpose\u201d may be defined as a \u201cmixed premises\u201d in the Act and consequently may not qualify for a \u201cdomestic premises\u201d exemption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Childminders should not have their homes assessed for commercial rates, Minister for Children Norma Foley has said. Foley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7116,43,2988],"class_list":{"0":"post-281182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-james-browne","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-norma-foley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}