County council owed €14.5m from developers
However, despite requests, county manager Martin Riordan said he would not provide councillors with a list of developers who had not paid up.
Mr Riordan released development charge figures yesterday following a query from Cllr Danny Crowley (FF).
The manager said gross arrears up to the end of last September were €14,485,548.
The council collected €8,836,372 from developers up to September 30 last, while some developers have agreed to pay installments totalling €5,762,906.
However, a further €8,723,641 remains uncollected to date.
John O’Neill, the council’s director of planning services, said those who hadn’t paid up were being issued with enforcement notices and many of these have also been furnished with the courts.
There has been a huge fall in development charges since 2007, in line with a major decrease in activity in the construction sector.
In 2007 the county council collected nearly €59m from the charges, whereas the following year the figure had fallen to €37.5m.
Last year it had dropped even further to just under €9m.
Development charges were being used by the local authority to fund major infrastructure projects, especially water, roads, sewerage schemes and amenity projects.
Cllr Danny Crowley said he was very concerned, especially as it was never easy to collect money owed.
“Maybe developers could give property in lieu of what they owe. I wouldn’t like to see developers getting off with this. There is an onus to pursue every cent owed to the council,” Cllr Crowley said.
Cllr Dermot Sheehan (FG) described the amount of money owed as “alarming”.
“When taken in context with the decrease in the Local Government Grant (which also funds the council), it’s alarming the fall in total revenue the council has suffered. It will have a major effect on projects and communities,” said Cllr Sheehan.
Cllr Tom Barry (FG) said it appeared it was predominantly large developers who weren’t paying up.
Cllr John Gilroy (Lab) said the amount of money owed was preventing the council from carrying out much-needed work.
He said councillors should be provided with a list of the debtors as it was public money and of public interest.
However, Mr Riordan said he wasn’t in favour of doing that as he could end up in trouble with the courts.
Other councillors agreed with the county manager.
Mr Riordan said it was a difficult time for developers. However, he added that he intended to pursue them for the money owed.
“It’s our intention to collect the charges, even though it might take longer than usual. We will have to be more active in taking enforcement action,” said Mr Riordan.
