Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 329: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he is satisfied that local authorities are complying with the requirement under Section 38 of the Planning and Development Act to make available copies of parts of planning applications at reasonable cost; his views on whether a charge of €5 is reasonable for an A4 page, €10 for an A3 sheet and €20 for a larger drawing in the case of Dublin City Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31123/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Section 38(4) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 allows the charging of a fee for photocopies of documents relating to planning applications "not exceeding the reasonable cost of making a copy".

On the basis of a survey carried out in 2005, my Department determined that there was a large variation in practices in planning authorities as regards the method of calculation of charges for photocopies of planning documents. My Department issued Circular PD4/05 on 10 August 2005 requesting planning authorities to review their charging policy for copies of planning documents.

The circular advised that the reasonable cost of making a copy should include only the cost of actually making the copy, and should not include for example the cost of searching for and retrieving the document in question. The circular also states "that the charging of a minimum charge of e.g. €2-€5 for one page is not reasonable if this charge exceeds the actual cost of making the copy." This advice will be reiterated in the Development Management Guidelines which will be finalised and published in the coming months and its implementation will be kept under review.