Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister of State's positive comments. What is key here is to break it down to the two projects. One is the land at Hazelhatch train station. It is not just me or the Minister of State saying it is strategic land for development in the short to medium term, that is agreed in the local area plan. Many areas are depending on infrastructure before they can be developed but this not one of them. All the services are in place. The National Transport Authority, NTA, and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport are advocating more public transport. We are making submissions to BusConnects to get increased public transport in the Celbridge and north Kildare area. The footfall through Hazelhatch train station shows it has the least number of passengers using the station on a daily and weekly basis, so this is an opportunity. It is not sprawling development but cohesive development from the town outwards. The development is being brought in a strategic way to the services I have mentioned. I hope this debate could kick off that process because all the stakeholders are ready to go and are motivated to make it happen. We want to see how we can move that on in the short to medium term.

Regarding the second bridge for Celbridge, as the Ceann Comhairle said one certainly would not wish to stand on it for too long. Unfortunately, for most people who drive out of Celbridge each day it takes them 45 minutes to travel 300 m because 19,000 vehicles are crossing that bridge and it cannot cater for that. I am not being opportunistic and saying this is the Minister of State's problem. It is an historical problem. However, there is an opportunity now to solve it. Kildare County Council is willing to lead on this but it needs the green light from the Government, including the Minister of State's Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, so it can progress to the next stage. If the Minister of State wrote the cheque tomorrow morning it could not be built. It must go through a process. The Ministers must give Kildare County Council the approval to go through that process in order that this necessary infrastructure can be put in place for Celbridge.

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