The Department of the Environment has rejected claims that it has let developers "off the hook" by collecting less than 1 per cent of levies owed under a social and affordable housing scheme.
A spokesman for the Department confirmed yesterday that a levy, introduced in 2002 to allow developers avoid building social and affordable housing, had been paid for on just 400 of more than 70,000 eligible homes.
However, he said, further payments of the levy would be made as more homes were completed in the coming months.
The comments follow claims by Labour's environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, that the Department had let developers "off the hook on the double", first by allowing them to pay the levy rather than build social and affordable housing, and second by allowing them to avoid paying the charge.
The one-off levy - of 1 per cent on houses priced over €270,000 and 0.5 per cent for those priced less than that - applied to all homes that had received planning permission prior to the introduction of a 2002 law requiring that 20 per cent of developments be made available for social and affordable housing.
The Minister of State at the Department, Mr Noel Ahern, said it was "very serious" about collecting the levy, although there was "no point in having a war" with developers over the matter.
He claimed "in many cases" local authorities were getting housing units from developers instead of cash.
The Department spokesman added that local authorities had decided to waive the levy for homes that had been "substantially built" at the time of the charge's introduction.
Meanwhile, the Irish Home Builders' Association (IHBA) said more affordable houses would be built under the new law if developers were allowed to sell homes directly to purchasers rather than through local authorities.
Mr Matt Gallagher, chairman of the association, told a planning conference in Dublin that local authorities were creating a "bottleneck" by failing to close sales in a timely fashion.
