Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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796. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount outstanding in development levies to local authorities by an authority-by-authority basis; if he will compare these with the outstanding levies that were payable six months ago and if there has been an improvement in collection; the local authorities that are charging interest on late payments and those that are not; the years to which these development levies relate; the advice he will give to local authorities in terms of collecting such outstanding levies; the local authorities that are not meeting their statutory obligations to publish the amounts collected or owed in levies in their annual reports or give details of the way any levies were spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34991/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides the necessary statutory and policy framework within which individual development contribution schemes are adopted by each local authority. However, the adoption of 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 and contributions owing to it, together with information on how the contributions have been expended, in the statutory annual report of the 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 financial 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 and, until such time as amounts outstanding are discharged in full, the conditions of the relevant planning permission have not been met and the development is unauthorised. With regard to charging interest on late payments, the enforcement of conditions attached to a planning permission, including conditions relating to the payment of development contributions, is a matter for individual planning authorities.

Information on amounts due is available on an annual basis with 2011 being the latest year for which audited information is available. Current debtors are amounts due within twelve months of the balance sheet date. Long-term debtors are amounts receivable more than twelve months after the balance sheet date. The information requested on currently due development levies, sourced from Note 5 of the Annual Financial Statements, is set out in the following table. A breakdown in respect of long-term debtors is not available in my Department.