Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

In reply to Senator Bannon, there were three aspects that were overlapping. I shall try to deal with them. There are normal development charges that have always been paid. This remains the same. The money is paid into the capital fund within a local authority to provide for water, sewerage or whatever. It cannot be paid into the general fund, it can only be used on the capital side for the provision of facilities.

There are two further payments, of which one is the levy related to the roughly 80,000 planning permissions outstanding. This relates to the withering clause. When the money is paid, local authorities must receive a receipt for each house in order that there is absolute transparency. Those acting on behalf of purchasers will no doubt want to ensure the levy has been paid and that they will not be caught for it again. It is a case of belt and braces. The money will have to be paid into the capital housing fund. As this is legally stated, there will be no other options.

The third levy is the payment in lieu on Part V. I hope this will yield a small sum of money in the sense that there will be greater provision of land and houses than a simple payment of money. Whatever sum is received in lieu will also be paid into the capital housing fund as is legally provided for in the Bill. Section 3(12) states, "any amount paid to a planning authority in accordance with subsection (3)(b)(vi), (vii) or (viii) shall be accounted for in a separate account and shall only be applied as capital for its functions under this Part or by a housing authority for its functions in relation to the provision of housing under the Housing Acts, 1966 to 2002." That is very specific and how the money is to be accounted for.

I have no doubt that councillors will be asking the manager at monthly meetings about the latest agreements put in place, the basis for them, whether there have been land swaps, how much money has been collected, whether it has been paid into the account and so on. That is a transparent and accountable way of proceeding. There will be no option for managers or councillors to turn around and take any of this money and do something else with it. The Bill is very specific. These are the three levels – planning charges, levies or payments in lieu.

Question put and agreed to.

NEW SECTION.