Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Councils can, of course, add levies to development charges to get certain things done. That has been one of the big problems to date. Many developers have said to me, and I am sure to Deputy Cowen, that they simply could not make the numbers add up if they had to fund a bridge, a road or a new water connection, for example, to a site that may or may not be serviced. The whole point of the State intervening here is to try to pick up some of that tab in order to make a business case for a site to be opened and for houses to be built. That is the whole point of it but the option is still there for local authorities to recoup some of the cost of providing infrastructure through a levy system. There are many examples of where that will happen.

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