Three property companies benefited from a Dublin County Council decision to accept an early payment from the Murphy Group which fixed development levies, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Responding to questions from Mr John Gallagher SC, for the tribunal, Ms Sinead Collins, a planning official with Fingal County Council, said the Murphy group had secured the council's agreement in May 1988 to pay £122,460 in charges on a 21.8 acre site at Forest Road, Swords.
The charges had been set in 1982 and when the planning permission was about to expire in May 1988, the council agreed that if the charges were paid by the end of June it would not seek higher charges for a new permission.
This benefited the Murphy group because development levies were increased in 1983, and charges for permissions after that would have been much higher.
Ms Collins said she had done a calculation based on development levies had the original permission expired in 1988. Grafton Construction would have been charged £342,860, resulting in a saving of over £220,000. Levies applying to a subsequent permission, this time for Princes Homes, would have been £331,160 - £208,000 more than was paid by Grafton Construction, a Murphy Group company, under its agreement with the council.
Ms Collins calculated that Ballymore Homes, another company that later received planning permission on the site, would have been charged £302,060, or £179,600 more than was paid by Grafton Construction.
Mr Gallagher said Ballymore Homes "simply made the application but it could have been any developer at that time".
Ms Collins said the agreement that gave rise to the savings was based on a proposal made by Grafton Construction to the council in a letter written on May 10th 1988. The council replied on the same day, a matter Ms Collins agreed was "unusual".
Ms Collins agreed that additional levies could have been imposed after An Bord Pleanala decisions to grant planning permission - but the county council had never sought additional levies for this land.
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