Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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594. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the most recent details available on the amount of unpaid development levies due to each of the local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3834/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Development contributions are levied as conditions attached to planning permissions and are payable prior to commencement of development or as otherwise agreed by the local authority. Local authorities may facilitate the phased payment of contributions, such as when units are completed or when a stage is reached in the development.

Note 5 of the Annual Financial Statements (AFS) of each local authority shows short term current debtors gross of any bad debt provisions. The bad debt provisions are reported within note 5 and are deducted from gross current debtors but a breakdown of what relates to current development contribution debtors is not included. The Current Development Levy debtor’s balances, gross of any provision for bad debts for the financial year ending 31/12/2017, which is the most recent year for which audited figures are available, are set out in the table.

The reporting of long term development contribution debtors and deferred income in respect of development contributions was amended with effect from AFS 2016 so they are no longer shown separately. The rationale for this change was to address an issue of misinterpretation of the data. In this regard, long term development contribution debtors and deferred income, although matching items, had previously been presented in separate disclosure notes, leading to a false impression that significant long term development contributions were due to local authorities, whereas these only become due for payment when works actually commence.