Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Amendments Nos. 1146 to 1148, inclusive, and 1151 propose to amend sections 504 and 505, which relate to development contribution schemes and supplementary development contribution schemes applied by a planning authority in respect of its functional area. Section 504(10)(a) provides that an authority may require the payment of a special contribution where specific exceptional costs not covered by a scheme are incurred by a local authority in respect of public infrastructure and facilities which benefit the proposed development. It would not be considered appropriate or necessary to expand this to exceptional costs incurred by other State agencies. The basis for the determination of a development contribution and the expenditure of income from development contributions is set out in the development contribution schemes adopted by the elected members of a local authority as a reserved function, and planning authorities may make one or more schemes in respect of different parts of their functional areas. They are required to state the basis for determining the contributions to be paid and shall indicate the contribution to be paid in respect of the different classes of public infrastructure and facilities which are provided. Schemes outline the level of contribution, the types of development to which they will apply and the expenditure of the contributions received within the confines of the scheme conditions. Income from development contributions accruing to a local authority in a given financial year is accounted for separately in the capital account in appendix 5 of the local authority annual financial statements. Once audited, the annual financial statements are available on the local authority website. I therefore oppose amendments Nos. 1146 to 1148, inclusive, and amendment No. 1151.

At a basic level, we understand why we charge fees for the applicant as the applicant puts in a lengthy submission and it takes a lot of time to be considered. However, given that fees for third party observations do not really contribute much to the cost recovery at €20 or €50 what is the purpose of those fees?