Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this Commencement matter. I invite him to come to Rathangan, which is not so far away and only about an hour from Mullingar, to see our lovely town and have a look at what is happening in St. Patrick's Park. There is a wonderful community living in Rathangan and a great community in St. Patrick's Park, but that has not always been the case. Some 15 to 20 years ago, there was some awful antisocial behaviour in the area that was only being perpetrated by two or three families. The majority of people who lived, and continue to live, in St. Patrick's Park are decent, law-abiding people who contribute to the whole social fabric of the area. Neighbouring fields were set alight and cars were set on fire and abandoned. Indeed, it got to the stage where the area featured on RTÉ's "Dirty Old Towns". The Minister of State may remember that. There was a sense among the people living there that they were being abandoned by the local authority, the local community and the national Government to endure what these two or three families were doing.

In 2011, it was decided that there would be a regeneration project for the area. It was a very big project. The area was one of the only ones chosen for such a project in the country, alongside an area in County Limerick. Plans were put in place. The reason the regeneration was sanctioned was because it was based on a design analysis of the estate that demonstrated issues were caused by the layout of the estate, including the lack of passive surveillance and insecure back garden walls with unsupervised rear access. There was a proposal to put a new build in place to deliver an estate that would be a pleasure to live in and that was clean, safe and secure for all residents, yet here we are 11 years later. Phase 1 of the project considered the refurbishment of 37 existing houses that did not need to come down. That was completed in 2019. That was a good news story. Unfortunately, at this time, a number of houses on the estate have been left derelict. It is very difficult for people to live beside them. A number of residents left their houses and were housed elsewhere. They did not want to leave their community, but they left on the understanding St. Patrick's Park was going to be a better place and this was what was necessitated.

It is an urgent issue. I have raised the matter as a councillor, as a Deputy and as a Senator. Local councillor, Anne Connolly, has been raising the issue on a consistent basis with Kildare County Council. I know that by raising this matter today, I will be subjected to a lot of negative and bad social media abuse by one particular resident. He is going to start the same rumour and innuendo as he did previously. My message to him is that I will report it to the Garda, as I have done with every other threat that has been made against me by this individual. There will be 15 new houses added to the estate. What I am saying to the Minister of State is that while I acknowledge we are in a very difficult housing situation, I cannot understand how it is taking so long to get to the point where we can complete the St. Patrick's Park project and have a lovely, viable place for the residents living there and the new residents who will come to live there.