Council criticised for Cnoc Na Greine lights issue

Kildare County Council's officials were told in no uncertain terms yesterday that 'not taken in charge' is a completely unacceptable response to the street lighting problems in Cnoc Na Gréine, writes Brian Byrne.

The issue, highlighted on Monday on the Diary, was raised by Cllr Rob Power (FF) at yesterday's meeting of the Naas Municipal District. He said that people living in the estate, comprising over 300 houses, 'don't feel safe' and 'can't walk from one end to the other without going into darkness'.

The response from the authority was that 'the housing estate is not taken in charge of Kildare County Council and the Transportation Department is not responsible for lighting in the estate'.

The meeting heard that the company which developed the estate is in receivership, but that the developer himself is 'still in business'. Cllr Power asked why the €75,000 bond held by the Council on the development is not being utilised to deal with the problem? "The evenings are getting shorter, and the residents at this stage are at a loss," he said, adding that the Council should deal with the situation 'directly'.

Cllr Fintan Brett (FG) said he found it hard to understand how problems like this can't be dealt with, and that it is a health and safety issue that really doesn't cost a lot to fix. "Most of the time it's the bulbs or the sensors, and they don't cost thousands. These people are paying their LPT and we should be obliged to see that they get value for it. This is not a high cost, and we should be proactive in dealing with it if the builder isn't doing his job." He suggested that the Council should have a designated person to fix such problems.

Cllr Darren Scully (FG) said that 'it's just not good enough' for the Council to give planning permissions and take bonds, and not be responsible if a builder doesn't fulfil his part. "People have paid for their houses, paid Stamp Duty, and are paying LPT," he said. "This authority took the bond in case something went wrong. We should do what is right by the residents, and subsequently pursue the developer, and I hope that the Council uses a bit of common sense here." Cllr Hillis (FG) agreed, saying that it's only a matter of switching the lights on.

Cllr Sorcha O'Neill (SF) said that lights in the estate had been fixed several times by Airtricity, the lights maintenance contractor to the Council, but that the residents had 'worn out their favours' with the company. She said it was a small amount of money to fix the matter, and it should be taken from the bond now. "I understand that the residents committee in the estate disbanded because they've been banging their head off a wall here."

Cllr Seamie Moore (Ind), in the chair, said that there were quite a few similar situations on the Agenda over the term of the last Council. "I thought that the Council had taken a softer view on them, where the infrastructure exists. I'd ask that they look at this case."

Cllr Power suggested that the Council ask the builder to fix the lights within a set period, and if he didn't, then the Council should do it and bill him.

Cllr James Lawless (FF) said it reflected the fact that the taking in charge of estates had all but stopped in recent times. "At the last Council meeting we passed a motion that the authority should go ahead with taking a number of estates in charge, and we should get along with that."

The meeting was told that a 'more detailed report' on what is holding things up would be provided.

Nobody shook hands with the elephant

It was easy to tell the experienced councillors from the newbies, writes Brian Byrne. They knew the game. They had their ducks in a row. Agreement as to who would hit which. When. And how.

There was talk beforehand about 'unlikely alliances'. Even that there mightn't be a Mayor elected at the annual meeting of Kildare County Council. But the hands had been shaken long before Friday.

So when well-seasoned Suzanne Doyle nominated her Fianna Fail colleague Fiona O'Loughlin as first Mayor of the new Council, with a record of 'outstanding public service', she could do so with a typical for her sense of confidence. When Fine Gael's Brendan Weld seconded Fiona as someone 'who will provide stability', the deal for the duration was clear. The Civil War is over.

Not that the two parties haven't worked together before in Council. Local politics is nothing if not pragmatic. I last covered the Kildare chamber about a decade ago, and there were many occasions when decisions had been sorted in similar fashion long before they were argued through meetings agendas. Maybe not so much in the last 25-member group, where there was a much more dominant Fine Gael and Labour. Though honestly, I don't know. I've been away too long.

But this new 40-member Council is where the current Government coalition makeup can't manage a majority. There's also the very visible elephant in the chamber. Sinn Fein, a one-person minority when I was last here. But this time with seats in all five of the new Municipal Areas. Winning them handsomely, particularly who will certainly become their star, Sorcha O'Neill in the Naas MA. With the SF domination of Dublin authorities looming over their shoulders, and a sharp, even unpalatable flavour from new independents, there was a pressing reason for the Civil War parties to finally bury the hatchet.

At the opening meeting of the new Council they also showed that their strategy is to try and bury the Shinners in Kildare. In vote after vote for various positions from Deputy Mayor down through a myriad of national and local committees representation, the five SF hands up, occasionally joined by an Independent or two, failed to make an impact. Especially against the practised confidence of Suzanne Doyle and Fine Gael's Darren Scully. Maybe they didn't know that he had been drafted by the party to other parts of the country as a mentor to FG newbies for this election. Stoically, they kept raising their hands anyhow.

A number of committees are to be filled at MA level, and it may well be that the dominant representations on these will be more generous to this new, but significant and disciplined minority. Whatever, even if the Sinn Fein councillors are very much among the newbies, they're also a quick study. And they take the long view.

I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop as this Council finds its feet. It's still the best spectator sport in town. But a deadly serious one for all Kildare citizens who have elected this 40 to represent us. It's a great pity that so few of those bother to follow proceedings from the public gallery (which is maybe why it was designed so small).

Cllr Fiona O'Loughlin said after her election as Mayor that she still has to get to know many of those who faced her top desk at Friday's meeting. I hope I will too. It's not just the Naas MA members who have Kilcullen's future in their hands.

And then, there's that next general election ... maybe the hands for that are already being shaken, too.

Fianna Fáil gets first crack at new Council Mayor

Cllr Fiona O'Loughlin of Fianna Fáil has been elected as the new Mayor of Kildare, writes Brian Byrne. She is a member of the Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District.

The Deputy Mayor is Cllr Frank O'Rourke (FF) of the Celbridge-Leixlip Municipal District. The elections were held at the Annual Meeting of Kildare County Council today, the first meeting of the new Council.

Outgoing Mayor Mark Wall (LAB) thanked the previous Council, and also the staff, managers, and outdoor staff, for what they had done for Kildare during the duration of the previous authority. Equally the community groups and other organisations around the county who invited him to their events, which he considered as 'a great honour'. "On my own behalf, and on behalf of the people in the Athy area which I represent, it was great to work with all of them," he said. "I look forward to working in the new municipal district."

His area colleague Martin Miley (FF) responded, saying the Mayor had served with distinction and pride. "It was a pride to the Athy area that you were Mayor, and your neutrality was present throughout." Compliments were also given by councillors from other parties and independents.

Fiona O'Loughlin was proposed as the first Mayor of the new Council by her party colleague Cllr Suzanne Doyle, who said her record of public service is 'outstanding'. Cllr O'Loughlin was elected with 22 votes, against 11 for Cllr Padraig McEvoy, Independent, and three for Cllr Sorcha O'Neill of Sinn Fein.

Mayor O'Loughlin thanked everybody for their support, and particularly those others who had allowed their names be put forward. "I feel it is very important that there be an election, especially at the beginning of a Council."

She noted that her journey to the Mayor position had been 'a very long one', with 15 years of service on Kildare County Council and 20 on Naas Town Council and its previous incarnation. She recalled that her father Jimmy was a councillor for many years also, and there had been an O'Loughlin on the very first Kildare local authority.

"Every one of us here today has come through a gruelling election process," she continued. "I would also like to thank all those who went for election but didn't make it. We're all thinking of them today."

The Mayor said everyone in the Chamber was there with one motivation, to make their county a good place in which to live and work. There are many issues and challenges to be resolved, and it was vitally important that the Council be responsive to the citizens of the county, and address the economic and cultural issues facing it.

She said the Council must also prioritise the support of excellent voluntary and sporting groups, and use the facilities of the Council to help them as well as the families and communities which have been 'hollowed out' by job losses and emigration. "This is a very different council," she concluded. "I look forward to working with you for the benefit of the Council and the county."

The Council's CEO Eamon O'Sullivan said the new Mayor will carry out her duties 'with aplomb and with dignity' and that he looked forward to working with her. He noted that the local authority reforms will 'fundamentally alter the way we do business'. "We in the Council have to make sure that it is reform for the betterment of Kildare. It's an exciting time for this great county."

We have councillors, now it's up to us

So, with the dust settled on the elections at least locally to Kilcullen, what was it all about and what will be? writes Brian Byrne.

Well, in the Naas area through which we will be represented in the next five years, we now have a mixture of stalwarts and new people in the Council chamber. But all of them in a totally new environment. That has ramifications which weren't necessarily part of the electoral to and fro on the canvass grounds in advance of last Friday's poll.

For a start, instead of a Council of 25 members, the new one will have 40. Quite apart from the fact that this is going to mean a major rejig of seating in the Council chamber at Arus Cill Dara to an 'inner' and 'outer' arrangement (and a whole new meaning to the term 'backbenchers'), discussions on business will become more complex, and will take longer. Whoever has the mayoral chair will need singular skills to keep things on track. And whoever schedules the agenda will also have to be aware of new limitations on what is possible to deal with in a meeting.

'Our' councillors of the Naas Municipal District — the term replaces 'local electoral area' once the new Council is established — will be fighting to make their voices heard from a larger, and louder, chorus. They will also be trying to optimise our District's share of resources, both services and financial, in a new era where the Council is going to have to make much more difficult decisions on its funding above and beyond the share of local property tax which will be the baseline financial underpinning of its activities. Competing claims from Kildare-Newbridge, Maynooth, Leixlip-Celbridge, and Athy will likely be much more compelling than was the case before. And into that bubbling cauldron, there's the seasoning of a political landscape which has changed, not as drastically as this weekend's headlines might suggest, but a fair bit.

Before the election we in Kilcullen and the Naas LEA were given the opportunity to sift through the political and personal attributes of some 16 candidates seeking to have them represent us. We now have the chosen nine by those four in ten of us in Kilcullen who elected to make a decision last Friday.

Whether we like it or not, we in Kilcullen now need to consider our village grown bigger as an extension of Naas. The county town no longer has a separate Town Council, formerly UDC, which insulated itself somewhat from Kildare County Council, and which kept us fairly significantly distanced from that town's needs and decisions. We can no longer expect that buffer, especially now that we are electorally and politically part and parcel of the new Naas Municipal District. And, really, back to where we belong in practical area terms.

When, under the auspices of KCA, we organised the innovative Town Meeting for candidates in advance of the election, most of those who have now been elected turned up. Others sent apologies for acceptable reasons. A handful of the many hundreds of Kilcullen households sent representatives to take part.

I spent most of the past day and a half at the Punchestown Count Centre, covering the proceedings of the Naas LEA for Kilcullen of a democratic electoral process which I believe, whatever its flaws, works as amongst the best of its kind in the world. I met and talked with both elected and unsuccessful candidates, and all of them were positive about our Town Meeting initiative. Some are already on their own record as being ready to do it on a regular basis. Certainly, we have commitments that they will turn up to another one in advance of voting on the Draft Kilcullen Local Area Plan, a meeting which KCA has already decided to arrange.

Because as a community we are now in a much more competitive situation for those services and financial supports which may become available from Kildare County Council, it is in Kilcullen's best interests that we engage with and support all of the new councillors who will be representing us. It is all the more reason why we need to meet with them all regularly on our turf, which is their Kilcullen turf no matter where they reside in the NMD. If we have issues, they need to know that we all believe in letting our representatives know about them.

Bottom line, now we're all in this together. When we organise meetings with those who are looking after our local affairs over the next five years, we need to show that we care about what they do. By turning up when they come to hear us.

The election is over. Now comes the hard part. To make it all work. For us, as part of Naas, in support of Naas, and for Kilcullen. Do make the effort when asked.

Breen, Hillis and Brett elected

Anne Breen of Labour was elected on Count Twelve of the Naas LEA at noon, writes Brian Byrne.

Following her election, Billy Hillis and Fintan Brett of FG were deemed to be elected without reaching the quota.



The count in the area is now completed pro tem. A completion count will be carried out later to distribute Anne Breen's surplus of 218 and Independent Paddy Horan's 807 votes for record purposes.

Shape of Naas LEA now clear

Following the election of Callaghan and Power, the focus is now on the last three seats, writes Brian Byrne.

It's now looking very clear that Anne Breen (centre above) will be next elected for Labour, and the last two seats will be taken by Billy Hillis (left) and Fintan Brett of FG, both currently on 1,047 and 1,027 votes respectively.

That will make the shape of the Naas LEA at three FF, three FG, one Labour, one Independent, and one Sinn Fein.

The votes of Labour's Fergus Carpenter, 759, are now being distributed.

Callaghan, Power, elected

Willie Callaghan and Rob Power have been elected to the Naas LEA of Kildare County Council on the ninth count, writes Brian Byrne.



Their election came on the distribution of FG's Jacinta Scully votes, the main ones of which were divided between Anne Breen of Labour, and Fintan Brett and Billy Hillis of FG.