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

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for facilitating this debate on an issue that I have raised a number of times and with which the Minister of State will be familiar. I refer to the building project in Naas that has been stalled for several years over a planning matter, leaving standing tower cranes that are a blight on the skyline and the town. Wherever a town or village has what is seen to be a stalled development or blighted streetscape, there is an unwarranted question mark over it. The purpose of this debate is to ask the Minister of State to use his good offices to contact the local authority and help it in every way possible to bring about a resolution.

Arbitration has been under way for some time. Because the issues have been outstanding for several years, it is imperative that immediate steps be taken to bring the matter to a resolution. One problem is that there is only one arbitrator for the entire country. I know this is so, as I obtained that information through parliamentary questions.

Notwithstanding the fact that the work is imminent, it remains necessary and desirable to focus attention on the issue at hand and to bring it to a conclusion at an early date. The same can be said of a number of adjoining towns that were victims of the economic crash. Sufficient time has gone by to enable the facilities to be restarted, to reinvigorate the stalled developments and to ensure that they become part and parcel of the economic entity that is Naas.

Will the Minister of State use his good offices to ascertain from the local authority what, if anything, is required beyond the resources currently available to it and to encourage speedy arbitration? If he is called on to do something further, will he do so early in order to bring about a satisfactory resolution? Approaching the Christmas season, it would be an important boost to the town were a settlement on the outstanding issues possible.

See this speech in context