Article 156 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended (the Regulations), states that a fee shall be paid to a planning authority by an applicant when making a planning application. Class 12 of Part 12 of Schedule 9 to the Regulations sets the amount of the fee payable in respect of a planning application for the use of land as a burial ground at €200, or €50 for each hectare of site area, whichever is the greater.
Therefore, the fee payable for a planning application for the use of land as burial grounds is calculated on a case-by-case basis and is dependent on the size of the area of the land proposed to be utilised for burial grounds.
Such fees provide local planning authorities with a degree of income which contributes to the costs of providing a planning service; however, there is a significant shortfall in the funding generated versus the actual cost involved in the processing and determining of such planning applications, as well as the provision of other planning-related services such as forward planning and planning enforcement, in an increasingly complex legislative and technical environment.
As such, I have no immediate plans to waive planning fees for applications under this class of development.
