Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Durkan for his ongoing interest in Castletown House and estate. He has raised this issue on a number of occasions in the House, representing the local community and the people affected by the situation. In October 2023, the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy O'Donovan, initiated a working group to progress the reuniting of the historic demesne and access issues to Castletown House and estate. The group includes representatives of the community and all the political representatives in the area, including Deputy Durkan as a TD for the area. The working group has held three meetings to date to agree the terms of reference. To date, these meetings have focused on staff access.

I welcome that the Deputy is a member of the Castletown House and estate stakeholders working group. As the Deputy is aware, the OPW does not have permission from the private landowner to access their privately owned lands between the M4 motorway and the State-owned lands at Castletown House. This has been the situation since September 2023. The only access for the OPW is via the Celbridge bridge gate and Lime Avenue. This is the historic entrance to Castletown House and estate. The key challenge remains that the OPW does not have vehicular access to Castletown House and estate. Without vehicular access for the OPW staff at Castletown, it will not be possible to welcome school tours, active retirement groups and other visitors to Castletown House in 2024. The key challenge remains that vehicular access is required for the OPW staff to access Castletown House and estate due to local community protests. There is a continuing protest to any OPW vehicular access on Lime Avenue. However, it is critical to note that this does not extend to Kildare County Council or to Uisce Éireann staff.

It is critical to understand that OPW staff have not had vehicular access to their workplace since September 2023. Their union withdrew their members on 25 October 2023 until the OPW can provide a safe working environment or safe access and egress for their members to attend their workplace. A skeleton staff continues to undertake minimum operations on the site.

The OPW and the staff at Castletown House want to return to normal working arrangements and longer opening hours to welcome visitors from the local area and beyond. The OPW wants to develop a plan to welcome children for school tours, to welcome visitors to guided tours of the House, to reopen the café, to plan exhibitions and to undertake all the biodiversity work that Castletown House has become a leader in over recent years. This is not possible with the skeleton staff it has at present.

The officials of the OPW have been in ongoing intensive contact with all members of the local community, with ongoing direct contact. They have made themselves available to meet with representative groups and individual members of the community on an ongoing basis. Despite ongoing intensive efforts, it has not been possible to get agreement for the OPW staff to gain access to their workplace. I would urge the Deputy, and indeed all elected representatives, to assist with sharing accurate information with the local community. As the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, has already shared, and this was reiterated to the Deputy on 25 January, it is fully agreed that Lime Avenue is not suitable for the approximately 250,000 cars and 1 million visitors that came to Castletown estate in 2022. The overwhelming majority of visitors to the estate are from the surrounding area. People on a guided tour of Castletown House account for less than 1% of visitors. As has been made clear to the local community, the OPW does not have any permission to access Castletown House and estate from the M4 access road.

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