Planning fees to sanction building illegalities will not rise by 25 per cent next year as originally announced, the Planning Authority announced on Friday.

Fees to regularise non-sanctionable properties were set to rise by a quarter at the turn of the year, according to the 2016 legal notice which brought the controversial sanctioning scheme to life.

But that legal notice has now been amended to ensure fees remain fixed for a further year, the PA said on Friday, citing the “overwhelming response” to the scheme.

Fees which property owners must pay are calculated according to the total and combined roofed over area of each floor of the property in question.

The PA has raked in more than €15.7 million in revenue from the scheme since it was introduced in August 2016. More than 10,000 applications to sanction properties have been submitted since then, with 8,155 of those validated.

Authorities have said that the “one-off” scheme is intended to ensure that properties which cannot be sold due to pending, non-sanctionable irregularities could be put on the housing market.

Critics say the scheme is further evidence that authorities are willing to close an eye to illegal construction.

Under the scheme’s conditions, properties must be located entirely within development boundaries and appear in PA aerial photos taken in 2016. Illegalities which create an injury to amenity and buildings which are not being used according to current policies are not eligible.

According to the PA, up to 70 per cent of fees collected from the scheme are used for grant schemes such as the Irrestawra Darek scheme included in the government’s past two budgets. A further 20 per cent of fee income is allocated towards the development planning fund, to be used by towns and villages for community improvement projects.