Mr Phil Hogan T.D.,Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, & Mr Willie Penrose T.D., Minister for Housing and Planning today announced that the licence fee for all fingerpost signs will shortly reduce from €630 to €50.
The reduction will be made by regulations to be signed by Minister Hogan shortly and takes place in the current economic climate of trying to provide a stimulus for the tourist trade and to reduce costs to businesses.
“My Department is continually considering ways of streamlining the planning framework by removing unnecessary regulatory burden” said Minister Hogan, adding “the current economic situation has placed small businesses in a precarious situation, with every euro counting more so than ever, and with this in mind, the new Planning and Development (Amendment)(No.2) Regulations 2011, which will be signed shortly, will include a reduction in the licence fee for all fingerpost signs from €630 to €50″.
“I am pleased to be in a position to signal this small but nonetheless very important new regulation which will hopefully have a knock-on effect for the tourism industry. In the current economic climate we need to reduce costs to providers who in turn can pass on the reduction in costs to the end user – our tourists,” said Minister Penrose.
The Regulations also include an expansion of a current exemption for advertisements for temporary signage for local events to include advertisements for events carried out for commercial purposes. The Ministers added that this now means that “local events, like wedding fairs or other temporary commercial ventures, can avail of the opportunity to erect temporary direction signs to the event for the few days either side of the event”.
