A High Court judge yesterday drew attention to the failure of the legislature to reform the "arcane and complex system of 19th-century laws" which govern the system of valuation and rating.
In a decision overturning the refusal to grant an agricultural college a rates exemption, Ms Justice McGuinness said the fact that the system continued to be described as "poor law valuation" was indicative of its outdated origins.
"It is to be hoped that the legislature and the executive will press ahead with reform of the legislation which now governs this important aspect of local government finance," she said.
Abolition of the agricultural rates system, together with the abolition of rates on domestic dwellings, may well have served to divert public attention from the fact that the rating system still applied in the commercial world and to many other persons and bodies.
The judge overturned a Nenagh Circuit Court order which upheld the refusal of the Registrar of Friendly Societies to grant the trustees of Gurteen Agricultural College a certificate of rates exemption.
Ms Justice McGuinness said Gurteen College, established by the Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland in 1948, came within the scope of the 1843 Scientific Societies Act.