Concerns over new levy scheme

FARMERS FEARFUL OVER PROPOSALS TO HIT AGRI PLANS WITH LEVIES

FARMERS are growing increasingly worried about proposals to hit all agri planning applications with swingeing development levies for the first time ever. It is one of numerous measures Kerry County Council is proposing to use to secure revenue from industry and business under the county’s new development contribution levy scheme 2017.

One councillor has questioned the apparently limited demand the scheme is set to make of the wind energy industry that is growing at a phenomenal rate.

The proposal to include farmers in the levy scheme has come as a shock at a time of deep uncertainty over Brexit, and after many farmers have invested heavily in expanding milk production with the encouragement of state agencies.

There’s good news for businesses contained in the new levy, however with a new uniform rate of calculation for the entire county set to drive down levies in major towns.

“The reduction obviously had to be offset somewhere, but in my view introducing levies on farms is not the way to go about it,” Fine Gael County Councillor Aoife Thornton told The Kerryman.

“I feel I should point out that I’m married to a farmer. However, I firmly believe farming is too important to the economy of towns like Listowel to suddenly start affecting it in this way.”

Cllr Thornton is now urging the Council to look more closely at wind energy - following complaints she’s had from some quarters recently over damage done to infrastructure by wind contractors. “There appears to be no proposal to review the development contribution rate for renewables of €10k per MW, and what is levied goes into a central budget. Surely all this should be looked at?”