James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Senator this process is moving forward.I am certainly moving might and main to tackle that issue because I am very aware of it as well.

On the Commencement matter, I tender to the House the apologies of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence. He is at the United Nations in New York, as colleagues will be aware. The Security Council meets this morning and the Tánaiste is engaged in that business. It is important business abroad, but he did ask me to give his apologies to Senator O'Loughlin and to the House.

The Senator is very familiar with the Curragh. As she knows, it is State land vested in the Minister for Defence, the main occupiers of which are the Defence Forces in the Curragh Camp and the Curragh Racecourse which leases that land from the Department of Defence in turn. Being from the locality, the Senator is very familiar with the lands and is also aware most of them are open and unfenced and are easily accessible. The Curragh itself extends to almost 5,000 acres. It is 4,870 acres and is one of the largest open and accessible areas in the country. The challenge is not to cede that level of accessibility because there are huge positives to having that open tract of land available to the public. Simultaneously and, as the Senator outlined, it leads to issues such as illegal camping and illegal dumping. The challenge is how to balance that open public access to such a wonderful resource while tackling illegal encroachments, which are completely undesirable. Unfortunately, we have seen those encampments illegally established over the summer months. The Department of Defence does not accept that those inhabitants have any right to reside on the Curragh plains. The developments on the Curragh are a source of great anxiety to the various users of the plains. The Department of Defence is working to ensure we move to a modern and sustainable regulatory model in managing this historically important landscape. To this end, officials have engaged extensively on this issue, including a number of meetings with An Garda Síochána, and have received considerable communication from the public. I am sure they have also heard from the Senator given she has been intensively engaged on the matter with stakeholders also.

For the last several years, the Department of Defence has been working in co-operation with Kildare County Council on the Curragh consultancy project, which seeks to develop a suitable future management method to allow the various stakeholders exercise their rights while at the same time allowing public access and encouraging adherence to environmental restrictions. It is that balance between an open public space and those who will unfortunately betray that trust by encroaching upon it in such a way. The consultation process identified a review of the Curragh by-laws and the Curragh of Kildare Act would be timely, with a view to identifying possible amendments that could potentially provide more effective solutions to the issues of illegal encampments, dumping, parking and other illegal activity on the plains. Together with Kildare County Council, the Department has been working to finalise the report arising from this project. It is expected the Tánaiste will receive a final draft of this report for review in the coming weeks. I understand it contains a number of recommendations to deal with these issues in the long term. I also understand that once the report is finalised Department officials will be happy to brief the Senator and other public representatives on the findings of same. The Department is also engaging with the Chief State Solicitor to identify legal avenues that can be pursued to address these encampments in the shorter term.

I thank the Senator again for this question and assure her it is the intention of the Tánaiste to ensure the Curragh plains, as an important element of our shared heritage, are protected from illegal activity in the future. I hope that between the recommendations being worked on by that task force and in the report, along with the more short-term immediate actions being identified through legal advice, this issue is tackled to the satisfaction of the Senator and the Kildare public.