I welcome the Minister here. I realise he has other pressing business to attend to and I will try not to detain him too long. I wish him well in his choice.
My question concerns the need for the Minister for the Environment to make provision for a northern access from the new motorway by-pass to the town of Kilcullen, County Kildare. I am anxious to bring to the Minister's attention the very deep feelings of the community in Kilcullen about what is seen by them as neglect of their town and about the way legitimate demands for adequate road and sewerage services appear to be ignored. It is important to outline the background to the call by the people of Kilcullen for the provision of adequate access to the north and south of the town, although I imagine the Minister is well aware of the history.
In January 1991, in a letter to the Secretary of Kildare County Council I asked for clarification in relation to access into and out of Kilcullen and asked if the council had any plans to meet public demand for access from the north. I received a routine reply then stating that my representations would be investigated at the earliest possible date and that was that. On 7 February, with a member of Kilcullen Community Development, a body representative of all shades of opinion in Kilcullen, I met members of the county council senior engineering staff. The minutes of that meeting indicated that if it was possible "to prove need" a scheme could be brought forward. A member of the engineering staff indicated that there was no objection to the proposal on safety or engineering grounds and that they would prepare a scheme if directed to do so by the Minister.
Following that meeting the members of Kildare County Council were approached to have the access made an objective of the County Kildare fourth revision of the county development plan which is now in the course of preparation. On 29 April 1991 the members of the county council resolved unanimously, "that Kildare County Council provide access for the Kilcullen by-pass to serve Kilcullen, Athgarvan and Twomilehouse". That resolution was communicated to the Secretary of the Department of the Environment on 6 May 1991 by the County Secretary.
In my view it seems extraordinary, contrary to equity and to local democracy that a unanimous resolution of a local authority can appear to be disregarded by officers of the council and by the regulating Department. Since then the members of Kilcullen Community Development met Deputy Flynn, when he was the Minister for the Environment, and the present Minister, Deputy O'Hanlon. No one can, at this stage, be in any doubt about the determination of the people of Kilcullen to secure their rights. In fact, they feel so deeply about this matter that the Minister should be advised that they have said publicly they will run a link-road candidate in the event of a Dáil election.
I know the Minister, Deputy O'Hanlon, said in the Dáil last week that the facility sought by the people of Kilcullen could only be provided in the event of Kildare County Council preparing a motorway scheme in respect of such access and that evidence on all aspects of the proposal would have to be presented at a public local inquiry. My question to the Minister is, can he confirm that under section 4 of the Local Government (Roads and Motorways) Act, 1974 he is. empowered to instruct the county council to prepare a scheme for a motorway? In any event I am sure the Minister, and his Department, are in a very strong position to recommend, or advise Kildare County Council to carry on. The cost would be minimal, relative to the total cost of the motorway project. All that is required is the provision of a ramp, or ramps, to an existing motorway bridge, structure No. 13 on the motorway map. The cost has been estimated at £100,000. The contractors have suggested that two ramps could be provided for £160,000. Such is the commitment of the people of Kilcullen to this project that they are prepared to buy the land and dedicate it to the county council, although, in my view, nobody should be asked to do that, least of all a local community.
The area of Kilcullen, Twomilehouse and Athgarvan serviced by this junction has already been designated an area of development within the county and I do not know of any other town which is not serviced at either end by access roads off a motorway. In my view it is simply a matter of equity that Kilcullen receive the same facility — nothing more and nothing less.
There are 58 traders in Kilcullen employing 250 people. There are excellent pubs, restaurants and business premises in the town. It is the centre of the bloodstock industry and it has the potential to become an important tourist centre. If these businesses are not easily accessible they will die and already some of them are for sale. Only this week Irish Rubber, the biggest employer in the town, went into liquidation with the loss of 75 jobs.
Kilcullen has a very active and effective development association, Kilcullen Community Development, and the town has the capacity to grow and develop both residentially, commercially and as a tourist centre, but it will not do so if traffic from the north must go through Naas, eight miles away, to get to it, and unless adequate sewerage facilities are provided. A planning application for a housing development for 34 houses has been turned down because of lack of sewerage facilities. A preliminary report on that rests somewhere in the Department of the Environment and, in the meantime, Kilcullen is being held back and the River Liffey is being polluted. It is not acceptable that a community should suffer in this way in this age. Kilcullen is being consigned to becoming a rural open sewer with no future.
I appeal directly to the Minister to intervene to do what he can to give the people and the traders of Kilcullen their basic entitlements so that the undoubted energy within the community can be directed to developing and promoting the town of Kilcullen and not to campaigning for its rights.
