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

I wish to raise an issue, which I have raised on at least eight occasions previously, namely, the unfinished business of and lack of progress on the Naas town centre development. This project has been ongoing for ten years. As I mentioned previously, its unfinished town centre development is not a great addition to or advertisement for the town or a great sign of it being a case of business as usual in the town. Naas was one of the best business towns in the country. It has been severely hampered as a result of the stalled development of its town centre site. In recent times a number of businesses have closed and now there are rumours of other businesses closing. This has all come about as a result of a lack of footfall because people need to have a reason to come into the middle of the town, to want to stay in it for a while and to be able to conduct their business there.

Despite that this issue should have exercised the minds of those in the Department with responsibility for the environment and in the Department with responsible for local authorities, and I am sure that it does, it has not done so successfully. Having brought this issue to public attention on more than one occasion, I am now getting to the point of beginning to become impatient. They say that everybody has a limit to their patience but to beware of those who lose their patience.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, for coming into the House to take this matter. I realise that the Minister and the Minister of State in the Department with responsibility for the environment are not available for reasons over which they have no control.

The raising of this Topical Issue matter gives me a unique opportunity to lay down what I believe needs to be done now as a matter of urgency. The Minister and the Minister of State with responsibility for the environment need to call together the players involved, get them around a table, inquire of them what is happening and why matters have not progressed at a greater rate than they have heretofore. If an opportunity was ever presented to people who want to get on with this business, now is the time given that the rural development programme was recently announced and it presents an ideal opportunity to become involved in the badly needed redevelopment of the town of Naas.

As I mentioned previously, the visual appearance of a business town or any town has a significant impact on what happens in that town. While developments are taking place in large supermarkets adjacent to the town and drawing people into those areas, it is to the exclusion of the particular area to which I am referring. The business people of the town have been concerned about this matter and they will begin to lose confidence and to worry about what is happening and if the town centre will be left as it is. Naas is not a town down in the far end of the of the country and obviously people are very concerned about what is happening in those areas and anxious to ensure their towns are reinvigorated, but Naas town is within 25 miles of the centre of this city. There is no excuse for allowing the current lethargy to continue.

Now is the time to electrify all those involved, to bring them all together and let them tell us exactly what is happening and why we have not seen a situation arise in the recent past whereby somebody would have said it is time we got something going here again.

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