Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

This time last year we were in the middle of the campaign to be elected to this House. The primary issue in Kildare was the lack of critical infrastructure, including social infrastructure, especially in the north of the county. During the housing crisis throughout the country, Kildare has taken a lot of the housing, particularly as a result of the pressures on Dublin. I welcome a lot of that housing. I am living in a house that was built in recent years. I welcome more housing in my constituency. We saw a 12.8% increase in the population of Kildare North between 2016 and 2022. I have no doubt the population has become a lot higher since then given the amount of housing that has been built. Despite this, we are struggling when it comes to core infrastructure.

On the situation with regard to schools, I will refer to the three-school campus in Celbridge. St. Patrick’s Primary School has been in prefabs since its inception and these structures are falling apart. St. Raphael’s Special School still has not got its new school building. Celbridge Community School is still in temporary accommodation as well.

On water infrastructure and outages, I think of Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth and especially the issues at Primrose Hill and Hazelhatch in Celbridge earlier this year.

There is no full-time Garda station in Maynooth, Celbridge, Kilcock or Clane. Maynooth has a population of over 17,500 people and an additional 17,000 students but no full-time Garda station. You would not get it in other parts of the country but for some reason Kildare needs to put up with it time and time again.

On childcare infrastructure, it is impossible for young parents to find a crèche. There is no primary care centre in Maynooth or in Leixlip even though both towns are bulging. There is no community centre in my home town of Maynooth. If a rural town had no community centre there would be uproar but we in the north east of Kildare in particular have to put up with it time and time again.

On playgrounds and recreational spaces, we have been promised a new playground in Maynooth. We have received a new playground in Kilcock, which is welcome, but it has been left in a terrible state since it was finished. Clane’s playground is outdated. An upgrade was pledged for the one in Celbridge by Kildare County Council but still has not been delivered. There is no public swimming pool in the north east of Kildare. There is no public swimming pool for families in Maynooth, Leixlip, Celbridge, Clane and throughout the north west of the county, even though there has been commitment after commitment. There are issues with energy and water, and outages of both, time and time again, as I have said.

If we are expecting communities to take on more housing, which Kildare has done for the past 20 years, we should be building the social infrastructure to match it. Children should be guaranteed a crèche to go to, a school to go to, a doctor to care for them when they are sick and gardaí to look out for the community when there are issues, but these things are not happening. Older people should have a general practitioner they can rely on, but we are not seeing it. My job as a newly elected TD is to ensure the best not only for the people of Kildare but also for the people of the country as a whole, as we all do. However, I suggest that because we are seen as a wealthy county we are not seeing the investment we should.

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