I am Vice Chair of the infrastructure committee. I know the Minister will be coming to the committee later on and we may be able to discuss some of these topics in detail. I welcome the national development plan of €102 billion, which is a huge amount of money to spend. Ultimately, we are only playing catch-up on the money that probably should have been spent in previous years. The percentage that we were spending was not commensurate with the 16% that we are going to be spending in the future. I also welcome the accelerated infrastructure task force and the plan behind it which is an attempt to rid Ireland of the unnecessary blockages and bloated bureaucracy that we have become all too accustomed to in this country. When people think of infrastructure we think of roads and rail which are overground. We think of water and wastewater which are underground. Often what is not considered is the social infrastructure that is needed to knit communities together. North Kildare, with its rapidly growing population, is lacking vital social infrastructure. I have referenced many times before in this Chamber the need for school improvements, new school buildings and more crèches to be introduced into large growing towns along with other amenities such as playgrounds and greenways as well as obviously the need for a new swimming pool in north Kildare. In the last couple of weeks, I have been dealing with the need for a new school in Celbridge and we have major issues with St. Patrick's National School. We have an issue with spaces for children going into schools in Naas and Leixlip. These have been coming on my desk in the last couple of weeks and indeed are continuing today. I am working closely with the Minister, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, on those but at the same time these are emblematic of the issues we are facing in north Kildare. Houses are being built by the thousand in my constituency, which is great and ultimately that is what the Government desires, but at the same time, we are not delivering on behalf of our communities. The national development plan addresses major infrastructure issues that are needed for the area but at the same time it is not building for the communities behind that. Kildare has another problem to go along with these issues. Towns like Leixlip, Kilcock and Naas are thriving as regards housing but ultimately their town and village centres are not thriving. Large-scale URDF funding has not gone into these towns and villages in the past and ultimately that is where we need to get to. Overall, I welcome the plan but at the same time we need to renew our communities. We also need to renew our town and village centres.

Sentiment score: 0.13