Dublin City Council faces losses of €2 million by the end of this week unless the High Court lifts a ban on it imposing planning permission levies on new developments, the High Court was told.
Mr Maurice Collins SC, counsel for the local authority, told Mr Justice de Valera yesterday that the 2000 Planning and Development Act empowered the council to apply revised development levies from January 1st.
He said the Construction Industry Federation had obtained a High Court order on December 18th from Mr Justice Kearns granting leave to seek a legal challenge to the validity of the development levy scheme and putting a stay on its introduction and operation.
Mr Collins, who appeared with Mr Conleth Bradley, said Mr Justice Kearns had made the federation's application returnable to next Monday. If the scheme remained stayed until then, development contributions of more than €2 million would be lost to the council.
He said the new scheme was governed by stringent time clauses for decision-making. Some decisions on the first applications had to be made by Thursday. If these were not made, losses to the council in that brief period alone would amount to €800,000.
Mr Collins said the city council would be asking the court to vary Mr Justice Kearns's order in relation to the stay on the implementation of the scheme, an ex parte order granted in the absence of any legal input on behalf of the council.
He said the federation had given no undertaking on damages in the event of its challenge failing.
Mr Collins said there was precedent in the case of legal stays for one High Court judge varying the order of a colleague.
Mr James Macken SC, counsel for the Construction Industry Federation, said he would require an adjournment to consider replying to affidavits he had received from the local authority's legal team.
He did not accept that the council would face the extent of the losses suggested. Mr Macken, who appeared with Mr Declan McGrath, said there was provision in the new Act empowering the council to impose levies as under the previous legislation.
Mr Liam Kelleher, director general of the federation, had earlier told the court that the federation had welcomed the provision for the introduction of development contribution schemes because it thought these would promote consistency, transparency and predictability.
But the federation was now concerned that many of the draft development contribution schemes which had been published and passed by planning authorities, and in particular Dublin City Council's scheme, breached these objectives. Mr Kelleher said the contribution for a single residential unit had been increased to €11,500 and the commercial levy had been increased to €110 per square metre.
He believed the scheme was deficient and did not comply with the requirements of the new Planning and Development Act in that it failed to state the basis for determining the contributions to be paid for public infrastructure and facilities.
Mr Justice de Valera adjourned the council's application to lift the stay until tomorrow.