Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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566. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount of the development levy fund in each local authority area; if he will provide, in tabular form, the amount collectable by local councils, in each county; and the amount set aside for bad debt; if he will make provision for all councils to expand this fund, in the provision of essential community projects and infrastructure developments, as a matter of urgency. [17814/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My role as Minister with regard to development contributions is to provide the necessary statutory and policy framework within which individual development contribution schemes are adopted by each local authority. The adoption of these 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. Similarly, and as with all local charges, the invoicing and collection of any outstanding development contributions is a matter for the planning 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 are regarded as not having been met with the development concerned being unauthorised.

Information on the monetary value of development contribution balances on hand (collected at year end and not spent) is not available in my Department. In relation to development levy debtors and amounts collectable, local authorities are obliged to include data on current and long-term development levy debtors in their Annual Financial Statements. The figures requested are set out in the table below which outlines the position at the end of 2013. The audited figures for 2014 are not yet available. Current debtors are debts due in the current year, and long term debtors are debts due in respect of periods greater than one year. An annual breakdown in respect of long term debtors is not available.

Data on bad debt provisions relating to current development levy debtors, is also included in the table and is sourced from Quarterly Debtor Reports collected from local authorities by my Department.

Source = audited local authority Annual Financial Statements 2013.

** Current Development Contribution Bad Debt Provision:

Source = Q4 2013 Quarterly Management Report on local authority debtors.

*** Long Term Development Levy Debtors:

Source = audited local authority Annual Financial Statements 2013.

****Borough and Town Councils have since been amalgamated with City and County Councils under the Local Government Reform Act 2014.