The Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, has dismissed reports that a new levy at the rate of €10,000 per house or apartment is to be imposed on developers in the Dublin area.
He pointed out that levies were already charged under the planning process - in Dublin's case, at the rate of €3,000 per house - so there was "nothing new" about this system. The 2000 Planning Act requires every local authority to prepare a scheme of levies and specifies that they must be adopted by councillors after a lengthy public consultation process.
To suggest that the existing levy was going to increase to €10,000 per house had "absolutely no basis at all because we haven't even begun the process yet", Mr Fitzgerald said.
"We're more concerned about house prices than anybody else and we hope that whatever levy comes out of this will be absorbed by developers to the maximum extent possible," he went on.
"We've all seen the problems of housing estates that were left for years without libraries, sports facilities, parks and playgrounds, so this is a way of making sure that developers face up to their responsibility.
"The bottom line is that levies are the only way at present through which you can raise money for things that are badly needed," Mr Fitzgerald said. "We have to decide what's realistic and then go to the council with it."
He said the €10,000 figure was among options mentioned in a report commissioned by the city council. "It's only a top-of-the-head suggestion. In the end, the levy could be the same as it is at present."
The city manager also denied that the four Dublin local authorities had already reached agreement on a common figure.