Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Since the swimming pool programme opened in 2000 there have been four censuses of population. A total of 58,000 extra people have come to live in Kildare. The problem is that there is resentment against development when it is just a case of one dimension, namely, housing. What is really needed is for people to see an advantage in an area growing, but it must grow holistically. Sport plays such a major role in all of our lives and there is limited scope for fund-raising in new communities given that people are indebted with mortgages and all the rest of it. I welcome that the Government is taking a more strategic approach because that is what needs to happen. Nothing new has been added since those 58,000 people came to County Kildare, although the growth has been constant over three decades.

I think we both understand the same thing, and that has been the dynamic right across the east coast.