James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 376: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the breakdown of the benefits to Longford County Council from the €100 million funding under the capital funding and remedial works scheme announced on 30 January 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40454/09]

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 377: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the breakdown of the benefits to Westmeath County Council from the €100 million funding under the capital funding and remedial works scheme announced on 30 January 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40455/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 376 and 377 together.

On 30 January 2009 I announced funding of €77 million for some 26 individual projects at various locations around the country, under my Department's capital funding schemes for voluntary and co-operative housing. The announcement also referred to the allocation of €13 million for the improvement of five disadvantaged local authority estates. None of the individual projects referred to in the announcement are located in Longford or Westmeath.

The 30 January 2009 announcement also provided for some €20 million to be allocated to upgrade and improve the energy efficiency of older local authority housing stock. The allocations to individual authorities under this programme were included in the overall €1.2 billion Social Housing Investment Programme allocations to housing authorities for 2009, which I announced on 30 April last; these allocations also included funding for social housing, voluntary and co-operative housing, and upgrading/remedial works programmes. Details of the amount of funding allocated to housing authorities in Longford and Westmeath in that context are set out in the following table.

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 378: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount of development contributions owed by developers to each local authority on 30 September 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40456/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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As Minister, my role is to provide the necessary statutory and policy framework within which individual development contribution schemes are adopted by each local authority. The adoption of individual development contribution schemes is a reserved function of the locally elected members of each planning authority. It is a matter for the members to determine the level of contribution and the types of development to which they will apply.

Each planning authority is also required to include details of contributions received in that year, together with information on how the contributions have been expended, in the statutory annual accounts of the authority. A new requirement was introduced for the financial year 2008 to include details in the annual financial statement of all accrued uncollected levies due to the planning authority; the 2008 statements will be the subject of a full audit by the Local Government Audit Service during the audit cycle 2009-2010. My Department does not, therefore, have up-to-date information on the amount of development contributions owed to each planning authority.

As with all local charges, the invoicing and collection of any outstanding development contributions is a matter for the local authority concerned to manage in the light of prevailing local circumstances and in accordance with normal accountancy procedures.

Where any payments required in respect of development contributions are not settled, such payments may be pursued by the planning authority through the courts as a contract debt.