John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I have some extra information. Authorities are systematically pursuing outstanding development contributions. The action taken includes construction site visits by senior planning staff in order to determine an accurate picture of the moneys due. Failure to pay amounts due to the authority has resulted in enforcement proceedings being initiated under planning legislation and this will continue to be the case. County and city managers are maintaining a policy of actively managing any arrears that may occur or where money is due to be paid and remains unpaid. Staff have been assigned specifically to deal with the collection of outstanding development contributions.

With regard to local authorities referred to at the beginning of Deputy Tuffy's contribution, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has 219 cases that have been referred to the planning enforcement section for appropriate legal action to recover the moneys due. Deputy Tuffy also referred to Dublin City Council. Since January 2009 in excess of 200 developments have been inspected to establish if development contributions are due. Following these inspections, 92 warning letters under section 152 and 64 section 154 enforcement notices were issued, 10 section 157 referrals have been made to the District Court and the city council has been successful in the cases that have been heard to date. Fingal County Council has 50 cases at various stages of legal proceedings. These were instituted for the amount outstanding in respect of development contributions.

I could go through this in detail but I do not want to waste the time of Deputy Tuffy. In Kilkenny, 90 cases are with the legal advisors for legal action and Cork County Council has similar figures. We see a picture of actively pursuing these moneys. Deputy Tuffy can have no real concern that the local authorities are not pursuing this. It makes sense because it is their revenue stream and local authorities will do this.

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