The AskAboutIreland website gives the valuation publication date as just the year, when in fact a more precise date is included at the front of the return. This can be useful detail for checking borderline dates, to verify if the possible entries on the return fit your clues. The publication date is usually within a month or two of the date of the final survey.
It's slightly 'techie', but here's how you get to the page with the publication date on it.
Locate a possible entry in the returns and view the original return in a new tab or browser window (right click on the larger icon under the 'original page' column and select 'open in new window'). Look towards the top of your browser for the URL or web address. You should have something like :
....griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/gv4/z/zoomifyDynamicViewer.php?file=292
012&path=......
The important section is the last three digits of the file number, highlighted in bold above. Carefully alter these three digits to
001 (zero zero one), and press return... you should get to the first page of the valuation volume.
Below is an example of the major text on this page :
Comprising a portion of the Union of Rathdown
Primary Valuation of the Several Tenements in Said Barony
The meeting for the hearing of Appeals against the Primary Valuation of the Barony above named will held in the Session-House at Enniskerry on Tuesday 13th day of April 1852
Richard Griffith, Commissioner of Valuation
Dated at the General Valuation Office, No 2 Fitzwilliam Place
Dublin this 2nd day of February 1852
Notices of intention to Appeal against the Valuation of any Tenement must be addressed to the Clerk of the Board of Guardians, and lodged at the Workhouse of the Union in which such tenements are located.
..
Shane