James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am joined by Deputy Frank O'Rourke from Kildare North to share our common concerns about proposals in the local area plan for a road through St. Catherine's Park. The Minister of State, Deputy English, will be familiar with this issue, which centres primarily on the Leixlip local area plan. It comes on the heel of decisions made by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government for Sallins and Celbridge. There have been three area plans in 12 months and there are more area plans for Naas and Maynooth to go through in the next 12 months. We are seeing a pattern where local democracy and democratic decisions taken by local councillors are being overruled by either the Ministers or their officials, and certainly by the Department. The local councillors live in the area, they are elected for the area and they understand what will work there. This will be three in a row if this Leixlip area plan is to go ahead. It is not good enough. The Minster and the Department are not accountable in the same way as local councillors.

The facts in this case are that St. Catherine's Park is a very important and strategic asset to the people of Leixlip, and to the people of Fingal, Lucan and surrounding areas. The two different councils, Kildare County Council with 40 councillors and Fingal County Council with 33 councillors, have passed motions at their respective meetings to safeguard the park, to ensure no road goes through the park, and that the park be protected as an amenity for the people. St. Catherine's Park enjoys green flag status and is an essential amenity for the people in those areas.

The proposed road does not need to go through St. Catherine's Park. The M50 outer orbital route is a viable alternative. The Minister of State will be familiar with the Navan-Newbridge proposed route where originally there was a plan for an outer orbital route from Drogheda through Navan down to Newbridge and back to Wicklow. If there is a need to go from north to south, it does not need to go through St. Catherine's Park.

On a point primarily of local democracy and, second, of amenity value, I call on the Minister of State not to overrule the democratic wishes expressed by the people of Leixlip through their councillors and to safeguard this park.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies Lawless and O'Rourke for giving me the opportunity to clarify matters in respect of the Leixlip and Celbridge local area plans, a matter I addressed a couple of weeks ago in a debate in this House.

My role under the planning code in relation to statutory plans is simply to ensure that they are consistent with established national planning policies and that they comply with the relevant legislative requirements. Where this does not happen, the Legislature has provided a power to issue directions under section 31 of the Planning and Development Act, which acts as a safeguarding mechanism and, mindful of the local democratic process, I am glad to say it is used sparingly relative to some 300 statutory development plans and local area plans that exist across the State.

With regard to Leixlip and Celbridge, my sole concern is that Kildare County Council upholds its statutory obligations in relation to the core strategy outlined in the Kildare county development plan and given that they are at different stages I will address them separately. With the Leixlip local area plan, the statutory process is ongoing and so it would not be appropriate for me to comment in detail at this stage. Notwithstanding this, I am very happy to refute any suggestion that my Department or I support road development proposals through St. Catherine’s Park, which is a hugely valuable and strategic amenity for the communities in Leixlip, Lucan and surrounding areas. To the extent that existing roads infrastructure in the area is deficient, my Department would instead encourage enhancements to the existing network.

Turning to the Celbridge area plan, unfortunately, there have been breaches by the council in relation to its statutory obligations by seeking to zone for new housing at peripheral locations sprawling towards the M4 while at the same time failing to meet the strategic needs of its existing town centre. Kildare County Council's own county development plan has earmarked Celbridge to grow in population by some 10,000 people over the next five to ten years. We need to plan for this and we need to ensure that Celbridge has a heart and soul. This means we need more than just sprawling housing developments surrounding weak town centres, which is so symptomatic of other Irish commuter towns.

We want Celbridge to be more than just a dormitory commuter town. We want the population to be part of the community - the spirit of the town. The existing historic town centre of Celbridge needs to be sensitively developed too in order to match the requirements of its fast-growing population. This must happen without resorting to the kinds of out of town centre retailing and other services which so many Deputies in this House have, rightly, decried as undermining the vitality of existing town centres. We had the same discussion earlier today at a committee meeting.

My only aim is to ensure that settled national policy is upheld, that we get the matter of locating new housing right and that we support strong town centres. It was for those objectives that I issued a direction to Kildare County Council last month. I did not do that lightly. I visited the town several times and saw what needs to be done. I recognise how important it is that I use the powers vested in me for the good of the town and that I uphold long-term planning objectives. That is not to say that decision-making on local planning policy at council level does not have an important role to play. It is rare that I overturn decisions made by local authorities. When I have to intervene, it is with good reason and following very careful consideration of all the issues. My role is to provide a strategic, national perspective in administering local planning policy, which, in turn, benefits local communities in the long term. If this were not done and these decisions were made under local planning policies, we would have a situation where the communities impacted upon by these decisions would regret the situations in which they found themselves in the context of having to provide the shops and services they need at the edges of their towns or, even worse than that, perhaps not in their own towns but in neighbouring ones. If ministerial powers were not used, the Deputies might raise another matter to discover why we had not taken action and what we should do to enable proper and focused town centre development.

I accept that concerns have been expressed to the effect that the development of the lands behind the main street in Celbridge is some sort of thin end of a wedge as regards wider development of lands at Donaghcumper and that it also involves the development of part of Castletown House demesne. From my perspective as Minister of State, I want to see the demesne of Castletown House protected and sensitively conserved as much as anyone else. It is stretching matters in the extreme to suggest that the development of lands to the rear of the main street in Celbridge, which are, visually and functionally, quite separate from the demesne, will compromise its integrity. I am quite confident that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent any wider development proposals - or any future development proposals - on the subject lands affecting the integrity of the demesne. More importantly, the benefits of being able to provide for the orderly and sensitive development of the town centre must not be set aside. In addition, the development of the area behind the main street will also facilitate a new public park and riverside amenity, which will be a major attractor for the town centre. All of those involved need to work together to get this moving.

I emphasise that I am ready to work with Kildare County Council in implementing its plans in a way that will protect the commercial vitality of the town centre and the heritage value of the adjacent Castletown House demesne, as well as enabling the creation of a new riverside public amenity as set out in the local area plan.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the clarification that the Department does not support, under any circumstances, any road through St. Catherine's Park. If that is the case, this can be categorically ruled out. It is a very welcome development.

The Minister of State says that this is a rarely wielded power but my experience suggests otherwise. In north Kildare, area plans have been drawn up for Kilcock, Sallins, Clane, Celbridge and Leixslip and there has been ministerial intervention in respect of three of them. The Minister of State's claim is not borne out by reality. The power is being used far too frequently, which is a matter of some concern in the context of local democracy.

There are other threats to area plans from ministerial overrides. There is the Confey master plan, which is an extension of the area plan. Before that progresses, what kind of master plan action is envisaged for that area. Residents are very concerned about the position in respect of lands adjacent to the Celbridge road at Leixslip, referred to in the local area plan as "KDA 2". They would like their concerns to be given a hearing at least, even if, ultimately, the override is wielded. This is the duty of councillors but they have been taken out of the picture. I hope this does not become a pattern.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank both Deputies for raising the issue. The Legislature has made provision for ministerial powers to issue statutory planning guidelines. These guidelines need to be implemented in practice, they are not something to which we should only pay lip-service. The Deputy referred to the powers being used in three of five locations but there are 300 plans ongoing and I have had to intervene in very few cases. The Legislature has put in place powers of direction in respect of local planning and policy-making decisions for me to use as necessary. Usually, the local process gets it right but on this occasion it got matters wrong. The focus should now move to implementing the Celbridge local area plan and I wish to confirm again that I will work actively with Kildare County Council on infrastructural delivery and sustainable urban development. In addition, we are ready to work with the council in tackling the wider infrastructural delivery challenges to ensure that Celbridge and Leixlip play their full part in fulfilling the core strategy of the Kildare county development plan using the full range of housing and planning policy initiatives. Decisions will be made on the issues raised this evening in respect of the Leixlip plan in the coming week. This discussion is timely. I cannot go into the details now but I will keep the issues raised here in mind.

I hope the position on St. Catherine's is clear. Many of the people who approached the Deputies have also emailed me but I have not had a chance to respond to them all. I am not sure where these rumours come from but people should understand that I have no intention of putting a road through their park.