Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the way development charges, as levied by local authorities on the granting of planning permission for one-off houses, is spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13898/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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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.

Section 135 of the Local Government Act 2001 requires each City and County Managers, before the start of each financial year, to prepare and submit to his/her Council a report indicating the programme of capital projects proposed for the forthcoming and following two years. This would include projects to be part financed from development levies. Each local authority is also required to include details of contributions received, together with information on how the contributions have been expended, in the statutory annual accounts of the authority.