The OPW remains committed to acquiring the additional lands that formed part of the original estate, where they become available, in order to reunite the historic demesne. The State tried to acquire these lands in 2022 and 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 purchase of a portion of the lands, the entire portfolio or alternatively, securing a renewal of the previous licence agreement.
While the acquisition of these lands is important, it cannot be at any price. Any purchase must be delivered in compliance with the Public Spending Code and represent value to the taxpayer.
The OPW does not have any permission to access Castletown House and Estate from the M4 access road. As OPW staff are unable to enter the site through the Celbridge Gate this is having ongoing detrimental impacts on Castletown House, its collections and the biodiversity of the Estate.
In October 2023, I initiated a working group to progress the reuniting of the historic demesne and access issues to Castletown House and Estate. This group have representatives of the community and all of the political representatives in the area. I welcome Deputy Durkan's ongoing engagement with this group.
It is essential 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 & egress for their members to attend their workplace. A skeleton staff continues to undertake the minimum operations on the site. This is why the opening hours have been reduced. Despite ongoing, intensive efforts it has not been possible to get agreement for the OPW staff to gain access to their workplace.
There is a continuing protest to any OPW vehicular traffic on the Lime Avenue although this does not extend to Kildare County Council or Irish Water. While I understand that the community feel a sense of loss that this road will have limited additional traffic, this must be balanced with the duty of the OPW to safeguard Castletown House and Estate for all visitors and future generations. 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. Over recent months, as outlined to both the political representatives and the local community, the lack of access is causing ongoing damage to Castletown House, its collections and to the biodiversity of the Estate.
As Minister for the Office of Public Works I strongly encourage that the community and political representatives focus on what is widely agreed in order to safeguard the public investment in Castletown over the last thirty years. The Office of Public Works must be allowed access to conserve and preserve this national historic property are on behalf of all of the people of Ireland. The people of Ireland must be allowed to visit their national heritage. The biodiversity of Castletown Estate must be protected.
While in previous years, approximately 250,000 cars and one million visitors came to Castletown Estate, I fully agree with the Deputy that the Lime Avenue is not suitable for this volume of traffic. The overwhelming majority of visitors are to the Estate are from the surrounding area, people on a guided tour of Castletown House account for less than one percent of visitors. The OPW will be commencing a public survey shortly. This survey will focus on gathering information on how people travel to Castletown, what is important to them when they visit and how can visitors be supported to use active travel and public transport. The OPW and the wider community who visit the Estate need to engage on this to find sustainable travel solutions.
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 made written commitments that the volume of traffic would be approximately 20 vehicles per day for OPW staff and essential contractors. People with a disability would also be facilitated with access as required.
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 this does not have negative impacts on the local community within Celbridge, is a key area of discussion for the Working Group. To date the independent facilitator has convened three meetings and I understand another one is due shortly.
The current situation where Castletown House and Estate are deteriorating cannot continue and I am aware that the Deputy recently had discussions with the chairperson of the OPW. OPW will continue to engage with the local representatives and members of the local community as this and are endeavouring to find a solution.
