MAYNOOTH 03 February 2003: Maynooth-based Labour councillor John McGinley has described as ‘incredible’ the block vote of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Progressive Democrat councillors in voting against a motion he had tabled to secure funding for swimming pools and children’s playgrounds in the county.
Cllr McGinley’s motion - ‘That Special Development Levies, under Section 49 of the Planning & Development Act 2000, be set at a sufficient level, with immediate effect, to help fund the three swimming pool complexes and children’s playgrounds proposed for the county’ - was tabled at last week’s final Budget 2003 meeting of the council.
“Incredibly, all the FF, FG and PD Councillors voted against the proposal, with only the Labour and Independent Councillors voting for the motion,” Cllr McGinley recalled in a statement this weekend. “If the public are to rely on [these] councillors they can forget about having public swimming pools and children’s playgrounds.”
E16 million needs to be raised in order to fund the three swimming pool complexes (Naas, Athy and North Kildare) and that is provided that they get the maximum grant of E7.6m from the Department of Sport. Cllr McGinley made the point that if Development Levies of E5,000 were imposed on new buildings in Maynooth alone, the Council would be able to fund the cost of the North Kildare Complex from present planning applications.
“Imposing such levies would not create a precedent, as Special Development Levies were set at E4,000 per house three years ago on houses in the Rathcoffey Road area of Maynooth in order to help fund the new Bond Bridge,” he noted, adding that despite being the fastest growing county in Ireland, Kildare has only one children’s playground and that is only in existence for six months.
“In contrast, Longford has 15, Roscommon has 10 and Donegal has eight,” he concluded.
