Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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651. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his Department's policy in relation to the imposition of development levies on approved housing bodies developments; if a circular has issued on the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14140/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Development contributions applied by local authorities are levied on the basis of a development contribution scheme adopted by the elected members, which sets out how contributions are to be applied in respect of developments in their respective functional areas. The level of contribution and the types of development to which development contributions should apply, including any exemptions from charging in specific circumstances if that is deemed appropriate, are therefore determined at local authority level, in accordance with the powers vested in elected members in this regard.

My role as Minister is to provide the necessary statutory and policy framework within which individual development contribution schemes are adopted by each local authority. In this context, my Department issued statutory guidelines to planning authorities in January 2013 under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, on the implementation of development contribution schemes to which planning authorities are required to have regard in the performance of their planning functions.

This guidance updated and supplemented non-statutory guidance previously issued to local authorities by my Department by way of Circulars PD 4/2003 and PD 5/2007. Both of these Circulars recommended the waiving of development contributions by local authorities in respect of the provision of social housing generally - including the provision of social housing by voluntary and cooperative bodies approved under Section 6 of the Housing Act 1992. This has been the effective policy in this regard as advocated by my Department since 2003.