New housing tax must be opposed

Local authorities throughout the 26 Counties are in the process of imposing so-called development levies, which are set to hit hew home owners hard.

These levies, when provided for in the Planning and Development Act 2000, were intended to be for the development of infrastructure such as roads, water services, public transport, open spaces and community facilities. The idea was that developers should have to share the burden of providing infrastrcture with the local authorities.

But now, because councils are not being provided with sufficient funds by central government, they are imposing the levies on individual new homes. They are as high as €17,500 per house, which is the charge in County Wicklow.

The Fianna Fáil/PD government has failed to supply sufficient social and affordable housing, failed to control house prices, abolished the first-time buyers' grant and now they are permitting this further fleecing of new home owners.

In the Dáil this week, Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin described the new levies as an abuse of the planning laws and urged opposition to them at local authority level.