Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Okay, I will finish up on my question. I see where my submission is going under section 503, which does cover observations and submissions from the public. It was never my intention there to say those fees should be increased. I just want to clarify that. I do believe the fees to reflect the amount of work that goes into a planning application should be for the applicant.

On the special development contribution, I accept that as well. I understand that local authority members set out their development contribution scheme based on how much development there will be, what the community gain will be, and the issues around roads and surface water the authority will have to deal with. I believe it would be really helpful for all the residents and the local authority to know - for example, in the case of the 300 houses that go in up the road - that the development contributions fees for that were X amount and this is how it is to be spent.

I understand that it is not easy to directly relate the development contributions of one development to one piece of infrastructure on the ground but we could make it a little less opaque than it is the moment. As with property tax, most of the people I speak to about it say, "You know what, I do not mind the property tax as long as I know where it is being spent". The development contribution fee is helpful for communities experiencing development and housing growth, which is a good thing, and it would be good for them to know of the community gain that accrues to the community from those developments. We could make that process a little bit clearer for people to understand.

Amendment No. 1152 refers to stopping the clock on a judicial review. I did not get a response on that. I do not know if the Minister of State came back on that.