Clare County Council is in danger of defaulting in its implementation of Government legislation after councillors agreed to reject a draft scheme which would impose levies of almost €12,000 on new homes.
Under section 48 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, local authorities must put in place a developer-levies scheme by March of next year.
In the draft scheme presented to Clare councillors, the council executive was proposing to impose a 300 per cent increase in levies on new homes where in some instances, new home-owners would be required to pay an €11,950 levy on homes in unzoned land and €9,560 on new houses on zoned land.
However, the plan was thrown out yesterday after councillors said they could not impose an additional tax on new house-buyers.
Earlier this month, councillors blocked the formal publication of the draft scheme to allow the council to consider the matter further.
Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) told the adjourned council meeting yesterday: "We will not do the Minister for the Environment's dirty work for him to impose this additional stealth tax on home-buyers because of inadequate Government funding for local government."
The councillors were told the levies were needed to fund €67 million in improving county infrastructure to 2009, which would be raised from imposing levies on the 4,500 houses which would be built in Clare before that date.
The county manager, Mr Alec Fleming, said the levy for one-off houses would be €3,280, but indicated that the higher levies for new homes in housing schemes would remain the same. He told the meeting that if the councillors did not adopt a developer-levy scheme, the council would not be able to carry out capital works.
Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) said: "I don't blame the manager for hopping the ball here today, but the scheme as he has presented it is a non-runner."
Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said the Government requirement "is a form of blackmail".
Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said home-buyers "should not have to pay for the sins or squandering of the past when the capital investment should have been made".
Cllr Marty Mannion (PD) said: "I have had people literally in tears on to me over the proposed levies where their savings for a new house were gobbled up in one fell swoop."
After the council agreed unanimously to reject the scheme, Mr Fleming told councillors they would have to reach agreement quickly to allow the council to publish a draft scheme within the next one or two weeks.
He warned that if councillors could not agree on a scheme by March, the council would be in default and it would not be able to attach any charges to planning permissions. The matter was transferred to the council's special policy committee on planning and economic development.
