2026-05-19

152. Deputy Ryan O'Meara asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he has any plans to scrap development levies for one-off housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37318/26]

Does the Minister, his Department or the Government have any plans to reintroduce the waiver for development levies, particularly in this case on one-off rural homes; to incentivise drive-on but also to make the building of a one-off home in rural Ireland more affordable, particularly for young people?

I thank Deputy O'Meara for this important question about levies on one-off housing. I thank the Deputy for his ongoing engagement with me and the Department in terms of how we can deliver more homes in County Tipperary and at an affordable price. Development contributions allow local authorities to recoup some of the public costs of servicing land for private development. They provide a mechanism for contributions to the cost of providing public infrastructure and facilities that benefit development in the area and are expended on public infrastructure defined under the Planning Acts, as well. These include the provision of open spaces, recreational and community facilities, roads, sewers, wastewater and water treatment facilities, drains and water mains, public transport, schools, school sites, broadband and flood relief works. The adoption of the development contribution schemes is a reserved function of the locally-elected members of each planning authority. It is a matter for the members to determine first the level of contribution and the types of development to which they will apply and second, the expenditure of contributions within the confines of their scheme conditions. The legal basis for development contributions are sections 48 and 49 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Under section 48, planning authorities must draw up a development contribution scheme in respect of certain public infrastructure and facilities provided by, or on behalf of, the local authority that generally benefit development in the area. All planning permissions granted are subject to the conditions of the development contribution as set by the local planning authority. Section 48(2)(b) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provides that a development contribution scheme applied by a planning authority in respect of its functional area may make provision for payment of different contributions in respect of different classes or descriptions of development. In other words, they get to distinguish between one-off houses and larger developments. The level of contribution and the types of development to which development contributions should apply are determined at local authority level, in accordance with the powers vested in local elected members in relation to the adoption of local authority development contribution schemes.

If I consider a young person or couple building a home for the first time in a rural part of my constituency outside of the villages or towns - for example someone building a house outside Toomyvara village, in a rural part of the parish, or outside Cloghjordan, Ballynahinch or Ardcrony - they will not get a footpath or public water most probably. They certainly will not be connected into any form of sewage system or wastewater mains system and they will not get any public lighting. As far as I am concerned, the development levy, particularly on one-off rural homes, is essentially a tax for the privilege of building on one's own land. I fully appreciate the importance of funding local authorities and I actually believe we need greater levels of funding for local authorities through central Government but I believe the current levy on one-off rural homes is making it more expensive at a time when costs are already so high for those young couples to build their own homes.

I again thank the Deputy for raising the important question about development fees on rural one-off homes and the cost they put on those families who are building those homes and who often do not get the same benefits as one might in a town, for example, or within the confines of a village. Nonetheless, the contribution that is charged to those families who are building those homes is set by the local authorities within their own development contribution schemes and is not set by the Government. It is a matter for the local authority if it wants to charge those development fees, how much it charges and what kind of variation it charges between the various schemes where there would be one-off houses, housing schemes or apartments for that matter, and who is paying those.

In relation to the potential of a waiver, it would be important that central government step in and continue to fund the local authorities to the same level they would have been funded if the individual was paying this. I am conscious, however, of those houses that are already there. Some people might be paying for sites, if they do not have one they can get from a family member. There is the cost of building at the moment and the shortage of labour increases the costs further. This is one way in which we could help those people, many of whom I am representing. While we are talking about rural housing and one-off houses, I would also like to acknowledge the work the Department is currently doing and the constant engagement the Minister is having with us, as members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to try to liberalise the rural planning process. That work is very important because we need to see more of those rural homes, particularly for those young couples and those people abroad who I represent and went to school with, who want to come home, build in a rural parish, start their family there and start a life for themselves there.

I again thank the Deputy for his contribution. There is significant work being done around the rural housing guidelines and I thank my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, also. We are very much working together to ensure we can have liberalisation of rural housing that works for people in rural Ireland. We will bring forward those proposals in the very near future. In the meantime, we want to help people in rural Ireland to be able to build homes in their own communities and whether that is rural one-off housing or providing people with the opportunity to buy their homes through affordable purchase or through being able to buy with the supports the Government provides, what is essential to us is that people have the option to be able to live in their own local communities in a house that meets their needs.