Vol. 497 No. 3
143 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the legal position of local authorities in respect of their competence to impose development levy contributions to facilitate and fund local public transport infrastructure, including park and ride sites; and if he will introduce emergency enabling legislation if these levies are not permissible under the planning Acts. [25090/98]
Section 26 (1) of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963, empowers planning authorities to attach conditions to planning permissions while section 26(2) contains specific provisions for conditions requiring contributions towards expenditure already incurred or to be incurred by the planning authority in respect of works which have facilitated or will facilitate the proposed development.
The whole issue of development contributions, including the type of infrastructure for which development contributions can be imposed, is being considered as part of the comprehensive review of planning legislation which my Department is currently carrying out. Arising from the review, I propose shortly to bring to Government a comprehensive set of proposals for reforming planning legislation.
