Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because I went over the time on my initial reply. Building on Monday’s announcement on the funding for the build to progress some of the infrastructure requirements, it is important that the local authority works quickly now. I hope it does that and engages with all the relevant Departments to move it through the system.

On foot of that and the existing plan, my Department will continue to work with Kildare County Council to support it in developing appropriately in the key locations such as Celbridge and other key urban centres across the country in accordance with adopted statutory plans. We will get the communication going on the master planning of the different areas and developing that out too. I want to be clear, not just in respect of Celbridge but other parts of Kildare also, that as a Minister in the area, along with our officials, we are happy to engage with both the local authority staff but also with the councillors on other zoning issues which they want to tease out and their plans for the county in regard to Leixlip and other places.

In terms of Celbridge, it would be important that our Department and the local authority have those conversations about the planning system. I will certainly engage on that and if resources are required to do the planning and the master planning, that is something we can examine in conjunction, as the Deputy said, with landowners who are happy to do that as part of their duty. Now that some of the infrastructure has been sorted out they are appropriate conversations to have. I will certainly see what is the position on that and make sure we can progress those conversations.

The focus is for all stakeholders, including the council, local businesses, stakeholder estate agencies and the wider community, to be included in implementing the Celbridge local area plan. I confirm that my Department and I will work proactively with Kildare County Council on infrastructure delivery and sustainable urban development. There are many key sites that can be developed in Celbridge to make good use of infrastructure. My own train station in Dunboyne will be upgraded to DART status. It is important that we make sure stations are utilised to their full potential. We will try to get that conversation going as fast as we can.

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