Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 23 Feb 1993

Vol. 426 No. 5

Written Answers. - Fees for Planning Appeals.

Eamon Gilmore

Ceist:

41 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that An Bord Pleanála is now requiring members of the Oireachtas to pay a fee of £50 before it will consider submissions in connection with planning appeals; if he considers it appropriate that public representatives should have to pay such fees; if he intends to raise the matter with An Bord Pleanála and request them to drop this requirement; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. M. Smith)

The fees in relation to planning appeals introduced under the Local Government (Planning and Development) (Fees) Regulations, 1984, include a fee for making submissions or observations; this fee was last revised, to £30, under the Local Government (Planning and Development) (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations, 1992.

The system of making submissions or observations in respect of which the fee is charged is an intergral part of the appeals process, specifically recognised and regulated procedurally in the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1992. The appeals process is a quasi-judicial one and public representatives are free to participate in it in their own right, in which event a fee is payable.

Where representatives made by a public representative in relation to an appeal raise new and substantive issues, An Bord Pleanála would have to consider whether these are such as to constitute formal submissions or observations which would be governed by the provisions of the 1992 Act and the fees regulations. However, I would expect that the bulk of correspondence received by the board from public representatives would not come within that category.