Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An effort to address the decay that is obvious if you travel through many of the towns and villages in south Kildare and the Portarlington area of Laois is long overdue. Portarlington should be a vibrant town, given its population size and transport links. Unfortunately, through mismanagement by successive governments, little has been done to address the widespread dereliction.

Councils have tools such as the derelict and vacant sites levy as well as the CPO process. For various reasons, though, they do not use them in any meaningful way. Has anyone bothered to challenge the councils as to why they do not use the tools at their disposal? It seems not. I have heard various excuses but it generally boils down to manpower. Councils barely have the resources to do their day-to-day work without worrying about the actions they would like to take, such as addressing dereliction.

This might explain why I recently received a reply from Kildare County Council regarding a representation I made more than six weeks ago. The representation related to a lady who had spent more than six months trying to get on the housing list. The reply read:

It is acknowledged that the response to your enquiry is overdue. This is due to the increased volume of work in the Housing Department, and I regret any inconvenience that this delay may have caused.

This lady is trying to get on the list, and where people do get on Kildare County Council's list, they then have to wait ten years.

A policy like town centre first must be more than just lip service or another fancy announcement. It must be backed up by money. I am sure the situation is the same on other councils, but councillors on Kildare County Council are often told that responses are not available or actions cannot be taken because of a lack of staff or resources. I do not blame the council's management, which has to work with the tools it is given. This policy is not going to succeed if councils are not given the support they need.

Dereliction is a blight on our towns. Towns like Athy, Monasterevin and Rathangan in south Kildare are like the rust belt, with buildings on their main streets that have been crumbling and left to rot for well over 20 years. There must be a carrot and a stick to encourage property owners, but there is not enough of either in this policy.

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