Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Once again, I am forced to bring to the attention of the House the ongoing issue of Castletown House in Celbridge, which is in State ownership, along with 235 acres. There is a stately home and a collection of various artforms not only relating to Celbridge but the country in general. It is an invaluable collection which needs to be housed securely. The building itself has to be maintained in an order which keeps the collection safe for future generations. In the last couple of years, there has been a huge increase in the traffic volumes through Castletown House by virtue of the interest shown in it and the promotion by the OPW. As a result of that, it has come to a situation whereby we have to plan for the future.

Unfortunately, a private arrangement was entered into for the last 15 years between the then owners of Castletown House and the State to gain access to Castletown House and the car park via the M4, which was sufficient to cater to any needs the State might have for the maintenance and servicing of the house and its environs. Unfortunately from the State's point of view, the adjoining property was sold. It is private property of 260 or 270 acres. It is the other part of the Castletown estate which is in private ownership. It was put up for sale and tender. The OPW failed to secure the property in the sale. As a result, the new owners are in the course of removing the facility that was there for the last 15 years on a temporary basis and have said it is all over. It puts all the property in jeopardy. It puts the services and the money that the OPW has spent on the estate over the last 20 years in jeopardy.

It has put in place a very difficult situation for the local residents and the OPW. The local residents continue to be blamed for causing an impasse on the basis that they have caused that, but they have not caused that. They have merely raised questions about the manner in which the OPW proposed to resolve the access problem that was presented to it in the month of September. That proposal was to widen the existing gates that were built at the time the house was built with angle grinders and to bring the traffic through the main gate. That is not feasible or practicable. The house was built 300 years ago, when the traffic on the main street in Celbridge was zilch except for the traffic going through the main gates, including horses and carriages and so on. It is not reasonable to expect that is the way that traffic will be handled in the future. The OPW said that it is all right, that everything is in order and that it has alternative entrance, access, egress or whatever it wants to call it, but it does not. It is not achievable, because it is 300 years since that access was deemed to be sufficient for the traffic likely to go through onto the main street. Now everything has changed. We now have a different situation which means that the local authority or OPW, together or apart, need to define who has access and by what route, and whether they can maintain, by way of court review or whatever, the access for the public and the valuable collection there indefinitely.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. This is about the 12th time I have raised this issue since September. My frustration and that of local people stems from the lack of progress since then. I am not blaming the Minister of State for that as this is not his area of responsibility, but something has to give. The situation cannot continue whereby local public representatives, including me, strive to resolve matters in the shortest possible time, but there is no progress to report. As long as the situation remains the same, then nothing will ever happen. At the end of the day, there is potential for damage to the collection at Castletown House, to the roof of the building, and all the trappings that go with that. It is an area where there has been great expenditure in the past. It needs that expenditure. It also needs continuous traffic from visitors.

It is now essential to attempt to have a judicial review on whether there is a case for the State to ensure that it has access to the property in question. It is the State's property. If it is the case that the State is to be prevented from servicing and visiting its own property, and allowing its employees to visit and maintain the property, it is time to go for a judicial review on whether a mutual agreement can be reached with the adjoining landowner whereby the State can do its job, while at the same time allowing the neighbouring landowner, who is the new owner, to continue his or her work regardless. It is a question of sharing the entrance and finding the legal means of doing that. The reticence in this matter so far is due to the example of Lissadell in County Sligo. There is no comparison between Castletown and the situation at Lissadell at all. I ask that we go for either an interim injunction or a judicial review to prove it.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I reiterate that the OPW is not seeking to bring significant volumes of traffic through the Celbridge gate and the lime avenue. The OPW envisages the lime avenue operating as a pedestrian-priority road in line with current practice across numerous OPW sites, such as St. Stephen's Green and Farmleigh. The OPW has given written commitments that the volume of traffic will be approximately 20 vehicles per day for OPW staff and essential contractors. People with a disability will also be facilitated at that entrance.

At this time, Castletown House and estate will not be offering car parking for visitors to Castletown. The practical implementation of this new reality, and ensuring that it does not have a negative impact on the local community in Celbridge, is a key area of discussion for the working group. To date, the independent facilitator has convened three meetings. I understand that a fourth meeting is due shortly. The OPW remains committed to acquiring the additional lands that form part of the original estate, where they become available, in order to reunite the historic demesne. As the Deputy knows, the State tried to acquire these lands in 2022 but were outbid by the current landowner. The OPW has had commercial negotiations with the landowners over the past nine months. These discussions have included the options of purchase of either a portion of the land or the entire portfolio or, alternatively, to seek renewal of the previous licence agreement.

The OPW continues to engage with the private landowners at Castletown estate with a view either to purchasing all or a portion of the lands under consideration at an acceptable cost or to find an agreed means for the public to pass over the lands in private ownership. The OPW is aware that the landowner has recently applied for planning permission to retain and substantially develop the existing M4 access road and car park. While in principle the OPW welcomes efforts to facilitate public access to Castletown, it will examine this application in detail to ensure that it is aligned with OPW's remit to protect and preserve the historic setting of the house and to ensure all biodiversity requirements are accounted for.