Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his reply. All local authorities were obliged to have adopted these levies by March 2004. I have recently become a fan of the Minister and read his Ard-Fheis speech in which he criticised what I believe he referred to as the alternative Government when he expressed concerns about the councils and the high level of levies they had imposed. Does he agree that these high levels were imposed when the councils were, in the main, controlled by his party colleagues?

Can the Minister indicate what might be a reasonable levy for these councils to impose on potential development? Does he agree that the reason we have these development levies, be they residential or commercial, is because the Government does not fund local authority projects as it did in the past?

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