Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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In my first speech in this Chamber I highlighted the need for major upgrades in infrastructure in the State and I used many examples in my county of infrastructural deficiencies and issues that need to be resolved. As Vice Chair of the new infrastructure committee I focused extensively on obtaining an understanding of the blockages in the system and the difficulties we have throughout the State in delivering the key infrastructure we need. We are working closely with the Department of public expenditure and key State agencies to highlight and resolve these.

Today I want to continue to highlight the need for key infrastructure project delivery in Kildare North, in light of the significant focus on infrastructure in the budget. Since the establishment of the Government we have seen the focus put on infrastructure and delivery and I welcome this. Projects such as MetroLink, the DART+ programme and the national broadband plan, along with many others, will have huge positive impacts on our country in years to come. Five towns were added to the living city initiative in the budget, which is great to see. I would like to speak to the needs of towns in Kildare, and the many projects needed to ensure Kildare, which has such a rapidly growing population each year, is not left behind in terms of implementing key infrastructure and building communities and not just housing.

In my home town of Leixlip a housing development with 900 new houses was recently built around the appropriately named Wonderful Barn. This development would have been eligible for the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, in the past but no new tranches of the grant have been introduced recently. Unfortunately, the project is not being further developed. As outlined in the budget, €300 million will be given to the URDF, which will help to support the regeneration of our towns and urban areas but we need to ensure Kildare projects in the north of the county will be included. My fear is the URDF is overly focused on regenerating older towns rather than helping to build new towns with bigger populations than those old towns, and I will continue to raise this.

In Celbridge there are traffic management issues that cause congestion multiple times a day. As one of the four councillors who voted in favour of the Celbridge local area plan in 2017, for the first time designating a second bridge for the town, I want to see this delivered. A total of €10 million of URDF funding has been allocated for the bridge but additional funding will be required to see it through to completion. I continue to work with Kildare County Council and TII as they move through various phases of the project. We will need additional funding to get the project shovel ready.

In Maynooth there is a university with more than 16,000 students and a town population of 17,000 people. Issues such as traffic are to the fore. School drops take too long and routine trips to the shops may mean joining endless traffic. Last Friday it took me 40 minutes to get out of the hotel car park in the town due to an accident on the N4. The relief road must be built.

Separately, with the continuation of DART+, as highlighted by the Minister on Tuesday, I want to reiterate once again the need for the DART+ to go to Kilcock. This would help to connect another 10,000 residents to the system. Traffic issues in Clane as well as Naas must also be addressed.

In my capacity as Vice Chair of the infrastructure committee I know that big projects need to be delivered. I want to be the one to ensure that, parallel to this, communities such as the towns in my constituency are not left to fend for themselves with projects left waiting for years. I ask that urgent infrastructure issues are fast tracked and URDF funding is allocated adequately so we get the underground and overground infrastructure, and, most importantly, the social infrastructure to go along with the houses and build communities.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Neville for raising this issue. It is fair to say he raises these issues on a very ongoing basis. Recently I was at Kildare Chamber of Commerce with Deputy Neville and the Minister, Deputy Heydon, where we had a good chance to sit down and talk with the Kildare Chamber of Commerce. What I heard very clearly from it was the growing frustration that the county, not dissimilar to my county, is seeing a growing population and infrastructure that really needs to grow to keep up with the extra population. One of the frustrations I heard at that meeting, and which I hear from Deputy Neville regularly and which I know he highlights in his role as Vice Chair of the Oireachtas committee on infrastructure, is the need to remove blockages and barriers that delay projects.

What I can say, and what Deputy Neville and the people of Kildare know, is that we now have a record level of capital funding provided through the national development plan. It is a large amount of money that we can invest now and in the years ahead. We need to make sure the urgency with which these investments are required is also in place, in terms of not allowing bureaucracy and red tape delay the delivery of planning. The Department of public expenditure and reform now has a new infrastructure delivery unit. It is the job of that Department not only to count the money but also to drive forward the delivery of the projects that are funded. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, will be back to Cabinet in the coming month with proposals from the expert group he has set up on what we can do to make processes more simple and straightforward and speed up delivery. We have also allocated money in the budget, for example, for, An Coimisiún Pleanála so that turnaround times and planning decisions can be much more speedy.

As I have said, Irish Water ran a very effective public relation campaign highlighting the need for more funding. The Government has provided the funding but there is a proviso that we want the funding to be used to enable more homes to be built. There is a very clear understanding of the Government's expectation on this. It is not acceptable that homes are built in Kildare for which people are awaiting ESB connections, or that there are homes that could be built in Kildare if people could have access to water or wastewater. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, has reminded me that additional funding has been provided in the budget that will allow us to have a further round of the URDF, and we will reflect the point Deputy Neville has made on a balanced focus for the funding.

I know a bugbear of public representatives in Kildare is the proportion of local property tax the county gets. I understand there have been improvements in this. I am proud that Maynooth one of the first towns in Ireland to have student accommodation that has been at least part funded by the Government. We need to continue to do more on this. I want Deputy Neville to know I am very conscious of the infrastructural needs in growing areas of our country, such as north Kildare. We have put the funding in place and we are now trying to remove the blockages and barriers to delivery. The budget, alongside the revised national development plan, gives us a real basis on which we can proceed with confidence.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I am very aware that through the sound economic foundation set by that Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, over the years, we now have the opportunity to deliver for communities throughout the country. Not only do we have the houses but we have the facilities. I want to point out that three towns of Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth, which we all know and many of us pass on the motorway, are only a stone's throw away from each other. They are only a couple of kilometres apart. Between the three towns we have 53,000 people. This is just below the population of the city of Waterford on the list of largest towns in the country. At the same time, between these three towns there is no public swimming pool, no cinema or no small theatre people can go to. Castletown House, the primary amenity we had in the area is, unfortunately, now closed. Through my work on the infrastructure committee and here I will continue to raise these issues. Ensuring we have the best possible places for our fast-growing communities is the most important thing we can do.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I agree with Deputy Neville. It is important that local government, national government and State agencies work in partnership to try to drive forward the delivery of this infrastructure which is much needed in north Kildare. It is stark when Deputy Neville makes the point that when we look at Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth together there is a population of 53,000 people. As he says, it is almost the population of some cities in our country. I am satisfied the budget we have put in place has provided significant funding for sports capital, which is one of the areas Deputy Neville highlighted, so we can deliver community and sporting facilities, and there is more funding for community centres also.

On the local property tax, which enables and empowers the local authority to partner with us on projects, the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, tells me Kildare will get an extra €4.9 million as a result of the campaign that Deputy Neville, the Minister, Deputy Heydon and others highlighted on the unfairness Kildare was feeling in terms of getting its fair share of this. We will work in partnership in the times ahead but the message is received and heard clearly, and it is a fair one, that certain parts of our country are growing faster than other parts and we need to make sure the infrastructure keeps up with it.