IDENTITY STATEMENT Reference: CC/R/VL
Title:
General Valuation of Ireland, County Cork
Level of description:
sub-fonds
Date:
c1888-1984
Extent:
c1000 vols.
Part Of:
Cork County Council Rates Department
CONTEXT
Creator
Cork County Council
Biographical/Administrative History
The modern levying of rates began in Ireland with the Primary Valuation of Ireland, known as Griffith’s Valuation, conducted and published between 1847 and 1864. These published valuation lists provided the basis for the levying of rates to fund the poor relief work of the Boards of Guardians, and other public works. The information in these lists, recording occupancy, ownership, and rateable value of property, was organised based on County, administrative barony, Poor Law Union, civil parish, and townland/street name. Later valuation lists, and related abstracts totalling valuations and amounts collected, continued to be based on this model until the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, came into effect. This Act created Rural Districts which replaced the use of baronies for administrative purposes. The new system of valuation lists based on numbered electoral districts (EDs) grouped within Rural Districts (RDs) did not fully come into effect until 1908. This system has continued in use to the present day. The rates charged are set by Cork County Council at its annual rates meeting. Historically, rates have been collected from property owners by rates collectors appointed by the Council, whose responsibility it was to collect as much of it as possible, and to explain any arrears or non-payment. These collectors received ‘poundage’, a form of bonus payment, based on their success in collecting
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