Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. What he has said is correct. The main purpose of raising the issue in this House is to focus the attention of those whose attention is supposed to be already focused on these issues with a view to bringing the matter up the scale to some extent and to encourage those involved in the arbitration process. I understand there is only one arbitrator to deal with cases of this kind in the whole country but I hope that is not the case. If it is there will be long waits for a great many people.

It should not be necessary to wait forever for something like this to happen. Seven or eight years is a long time for the people of Naas to look at an obsolete site, for want of a better description, and to see a crane sitting still on a site that is moving nowhere. It gives a bad impression of the area. It gives a bad feeling to the people who live in the area and it is a bad, although unintentional, advertisement for the area. As far as the people of the area are concerned, it is not their intention to advertise negatively the place in which they live. As I said earlier, Naas is one of the most progressive towns in the country and will continue to be so. However, it would be very helpful if all those agencies to which the Minister of State has already referred got involved and got their heads together as a matter of urgency to resolve the outstanding issues quickly as opposed to dragging them out for the longest possible time.

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