Brian Stanley: Laois must get urgent infrastructure funding

Over the last week or so, you've been very critical of county councils who quote, and you've said, who think they've done enough on housing, unquote, and you've said that there's too much sluggishness in parts of the system in terms of zoning. Well, Ironic Leash can be counted as one of them, because this week, within the last few days, if you look at what they have done in terms of zoning, and in terms of housing, they've exceeded the government targets, the Department of Housing targets. We do need more affordable and social housing. We do need more cost rental. But in terms of targets, they've gone well past them. And in zoning, this week, the zone lands for an additional, on top of what's already zoned, 8,200 homes. That's a population increase of between 25,000 and 30,000 in a county with about 95,000 of the population at the moment. It's in the top three highest population increases in terms of the state proportionally. So this was demanded of Fianna Fáil at Fine Gael and the government, and I have no problem with it, right? But the straightforward facts are that we don't have the infrastructure in the county. So the funding allocation this year under the National Development Plan announced earlier in relation to roads, we got zero. So cash is required. Schools. We need a new primary school in Portlaoise. We need Closh doing maths secondary to be fast-tracked. School Eastagon in Port Arnicham needs to be built. And Sapling Special School in Grey Cullen is dependent on the goodwill of strangers, apparently. The N80 bypass in Mount Melech, long promised, and you saw it for yourself when you were down there a year and a half ago. The bypass in Portlaoise N80 is urgently needed from the Fairgreen to Kilminchy roundabout. The N80 is coming in through a highly populated area. HGVs are hitting the rail bridge, choking it along through the market square. The whole place is choked up. Three of the very large land banks that were zoned this week are on the path of the PNOR, the Portage Northern Orbital Route. And that's there since my time on the council and before that. That needs to be constructed. There's a critical shortage of wastewater infrastructure in some of the towns and villages that have been earmarked. Boroughs Gnostry, 160 homes. Ballybritish, 114. Ballinick Hill, 58. Grey Cullen, 437. All of them need wastewater infrastructure upgrades or network collections. Primary care centre is needed in Portlaoise. That needs to be built. So Laoise County Council have provided whatever infrastructure they can and facilities, with the limited resources that they have. And any of your ministers that's been down, including Minister Cummins, and you didn't invite me, by the way, when you were coming. You came in, you sneaked in, and you're only about a quarter of a mile from me. You know, you will have seen what's been delivered in Laoise. So the CEO of the council and the councillors are saying, we've done our bit and we'll do more when we get the money. And we'll come up with whatever money we can as well. But the funds have to be provided for those projects. So will you get the checkbook out? And will you make sure that we get those pieces of infrastructure that we need? Roads, wastewater, schools, primary care centre, and sports and Thanks, Deputy Stanley. Tánaiste. Go raibh maith agat. Thanks very much to Deputy Stanley. And can I firstly say, because fair is fair, Laoise is a good performer when it comes to housing. I have my sheet here. So there's nowhere to hide here, by the way. The data's there. It shows who's doing a good job and who's not doing a good job. Laoise has actually done quite a good job in relation to dereliction. I think you have 13 derelict sites levied during the year 2024. Laoise has performed pretty well, I think, when it comes to housing delivery, the targets in relation to housing delivery, actually very well, and in relation to zoning. So I acknowledge that. And I thank the County Council for their work in relation to that. Now, I am told by my colleague and friend, Deputy Aird, that this week, Laoise, you did receive good news in relation to funding. I think 10 million was it for the new road in Port Laoise. I think you were successful in two projects in relation to the housing activation and infrastructure office as well. So government is doing its part. And one of the reasons we set up the housing activation office, because you do have a valid point in relation to this, infrastructure is a key enabler for housing, 100%. And that's why this week we allocated more than 800 million euro, I think, in funding to projects right across the country. And we intend to build on that. If you remember, call one, the round we've just given out, was only open to local authorities to apply for funding. In the future, I think we'll look at going beyond local authorities to give opportunities for partnership with private industry, with developers as well. You mentioned sports clubs. Just to let you know, the sports capital funding will be opening very shortly, where I expect clubs in your own county and right across the country to benefit. Government will receive an update on that this month. I think that's important too. We have a lot of funding. You said get the checkbook out. We have a lot of funding allocated in relation to infrastructure. We intend as a government to spend 275 billion euro on infrastructure between now and 2035. I think one of the collective challenges we're going to have, central government and local government, is speeding up delivery, quite frankly. And that's why I think getting the critical infrastructure bill passed by both houses of the Oireachtas before the summer recess is a key enabler of delivering on some of those projects. Schools, I know, are a real issue, 100%. And I know there are a lot of pressure points, particularly in high demand population areas. There will be further allocations in relation to school funding from a capital point of view in the time ahead. The list that's been published is not the final word on the matter. There will be a need to do more. And the medium-term fiscal plan that the government has published has on it allocated capital that we will be able to return to again. And I hope education can benefit from that. I push back slightly when I hear this idea of the councils are willing to build a few more houses if you're willing to give them A, B and C. It's not that. It's not binary. There's a housing emergency. Everybody has a responsibility to do everything they can to build homes so our young people can get out of the box rooms and into their own homes. So it's not we'll do it, but we'll only do it if you give us this. Do it. Do your job. It's a national emergency. Get on with it. But you will find in partnership a government willing to work to put in place that key infrastructure to make sure we don't just build homes, but also build sustainable communities. I have to say to you that Minister Cleary, Minister Brown, Minister Cummins, Minister Carroll-McNeill have all been in the constituency. It's kind of like an election year. It's good to see them all down there. But Minister Cummins is the only one that didn't tell me he was coming. Anyway, so what I would say to you about it is this, is that yes, there's been funding allocated and that's fair enough. But the roundabout you're talking about, one of those is earmarked for, that's nearly built. You know, I passed it this morning, very early this morning, coming here. So there's big projects, that PNR, Portage Northern Orbital Route, and the N80 in Port, in Mount Melech are key. The village and towns, the small schemes there, the scheme for small towns and villages, the Iskiernam one, that needs to be delivered on. We need to see that happening. We can't have infrastructure. You can't increase the population of a county by 25 or 26 or 27 per cent without putting in extra infrastructure. And that's on top of what's already zoned. And I would appeal to you to go back and look again at this. On the cost of housing, and I heard a debate the other night with Minister Cummins and someone from Labour, Conor Sheehan from Labour. You know, back a number of years ago, Fine Gael were in government, actually, and so were Labour. And the Kenny report came out, and Justice Kenny, he wasn't a member of the revolutionary Marxist Party of Ireland, or Mao's shining path revolution, right? I mean, he was a fairly conservative man. But we came up with a very practical solution regarding the cost of land. And the cost of land is one of the things driving up housing. You need to go back again and look at this. I think my friends in the Labour Party are suggesting they weren't in government then. I was a member of the Senate, and I said it's very easy to go so far. Neither Jed nor I were born, so we can't be held responsible for that one. But the brother there took a couple of serious points there. I mean, the first thing is, it's the first time I've ever come into this house where somebody seems to be bemoaning so many ministers coming to leash. You obviously haven't met Deputy Williard. It's easier to go to leash and try and deliver. And we intend to continue to visit. And you're right, there's no election for quite a number of years, be assured of that. But there's a hell of a lot of work to do. We intend to be out and about on the ground in communities, including your good county of Leash, working with communities and trying to deliver. And we are delivering. We're delivering a lot when it comes to infrastructure. You had the two announcements of the projects this week for Leash to the Housing Activation Office. And we're going to spend, every three euro we're going to spend on capital over the next number of years is going to be spent on housing or infrastructure to enable the delivery of housing. I think that's an important thing to say. I do want to acknowledge there is good partnership. I get a bit spiky every now and again when there's different parts of the system that need to do more. I think that's part of our job. But there is in general good partnership between local government approved housing bodies, the LDA, bringing Ishcare and the ASB, and everybody has to work together if we're to rectify these issues. I take the point you make about water and the likes, and I do think the change we've made to allow developer-led infrastructure in smaller communities will make a difference in County Leash, as will the rural planning guidelines which I expect to go to Cabinet next week.