Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I offer this response on behalf of the Minister, who is unable to attend this morning. I thank Deputy Durkan for his ongoing interest in Castletown House. As a fellow Kildare man, I know of the huge emotion and upset there is around developments in the area around Castletown House and estate. In recent months, Deputy Durkan has made continuous representations through parliamentary questions, Topical Issues and Oireachtas committees with regard to Castletown House and estate. He, along with other elected representatives of Kildare North, are members of the Castletown House and estate stakeholders working group, which was established in October 2023 to try to progress the reuniting of the historic demesne and access issues at Castletown House and estate. The group includes representatives of the community and all the local political representatives in the area.

It is important to restate the current situation. In September 2022, the OPW sought to purchase the lands adjacent to Castletown House and estate in a private sale. These lands have been in private ownership since the estate was sold by the Connolly family. As has been made clear, the OPW made a bid for these lands in excess of the market price, but was outbid by a private individual. In September 2023, the private owner of these lands withdrew permission for OPW staff, its servants or its agents to enter his private lands.

While I understand that the private landowner has continued to allow members of the local community to use his lands as a car park, he does not extend this permission to the Office of Public Works. The issues around vehicular access to Castletown House and estate would be resolved with immediate effect if the private landowner granted permission to the OPW to cross his land. When the State took ownership of Castletown House and estate, the only vehicular access was the Celbridge Gate and Lime Avenue. This was the case from 1994 to 2006. In 2006, the previous landowner granted a licence to the OPW to operate a car park and access road through the private lands on an annual basis. However, the current landowner was not open to agreeing to a licence agreement on a similar basis or a basis where a significantly higher licence fee was paid.

At the request of different stakeholders, the OPW has examined other access points to Castletown farmyard. These were through the public road in the Woodview estate; through a privately owned and maintained road at the Batty Langley gate and on to the historical pedestrian pathway of the Dublin drive, which is not designed for the weight of vehicles; and through the Celbridge Gate on Lime Avenue. It is clearly understood that the use of all these routes is unacceptable to different parts of the community. However, if no routes are acceptable, the outcome is that the OPW staff cannot return to conserve and protect Castletown House and estate. Lime Avenue has always been the vehicular access point to Castletown House and estate since the house was built. The roadway is designed for vehicular traffic.

To be clear, and for the avoidance of all doubt, it has been stated many times on the record of the House that the OPW is not seeking to bring significant volumes of traffic through the Celbridge Gate on Lime Avenue. The OPW envisages Lime Avenue operating as a pedestrian priority road, in line with current practice across numerous OPW sites, such as in St. Stephen's Green and Farmleigh. The OPW has made written commitments that the volume of traffic would be approximately 20 vehicles per day for OPW staff and essential contractors. People with a disability would be facilitated with access as required.

At this time, Castletown House and estate will not be offering car parking for visitors to Castletown House. The practical implementation of this new reality and ensuring this does not have negative impacts on the local community within Celbridge is a key area of discussion of the working group.

The small number of vehicles would not impact on the current congestion within Celbridge. In fact, the work by the working group and the OPW may help to reduce congestion in the longer term by changing travel patterns.

Since 2006, the State has spent approximately €25 million investing in Castletown House and estate. Castletown House and estate is the most visited site in Kildare, which is critical to the local tourist economy.

I have more detail which I will provide in my supplementary response.

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