Highly-populated town in Kildare needs housing 'very badly'

The comments were made by a local councillor in relation to a rejected housing development

By Ciarán Mather Published 22nd May 2026, 16:00 BST Highly-populated town in Kildare needs housing 'very badly' | FILE PHOTO The comments were made by a local councillor in relation to a rejected housing development Sign up to our Kildare Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Kildare Live within your account.

A highly-populated town in County Kildare needs housing ‘very badly', according to a local councillor.

The comments, which referenced the town of Newbridge, were made by Fianna Fáil Cllr Rob Power at the latest Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District (MD) meeting, which took place on Wednesday, May 20 last.

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The subject of housing in Newbridge arose when he motioned for Kildare County Council (KCC) to outline ‘any potential impact on the ability to deliver on housing targets for Newbridge, in light of the decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) to reject an application for 569 units in Great Connell’.

His motion was seconded by his party colleague Cllr Noel Heavey, who is also the Mayor of the MD.

It read as follows: “County Kildare is required to deliver housing in line with its identified targets under Housing for All, including social and affordable housing.

“The decision by ACP to refuse planning permission for the proposed 569-unit development at Great Connell has implications for housing delivery in Newbridge.”

KCC elaborated: “While the refusal does not alter KCC’s current housing targets under Housing for All, it does reduce the number of units that would have contributed to social housing delivery in Newbridge.

“Housing delivery in Newbridge, and across County Kildare more generally, is supported through a range of mechanisms, including direct build, the acquisition of units under Part V, delivery in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies, collaboration with the Land Development Agency, and private sector residential development facilitated through the planning process.

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“KCC also continues to support housing delivery through developer engagement with planning permissions, land activation, infrastructure delivery, and regeneration initiatives.”

Furthermore, KCC said that local authorities are also ‘awaiting further detail’ in relation to revised delivery targets under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 to 2030.

“Once those targets are confirmed, a new Housing Delivery Action Plan will be required to reflect the updated delivery requirements,” KCC added.

Speaking further on his motion, Cllr Power told KCC that ‘285 families [in Newbridge] will not getting housing’ (When asked by the Leinster Leader about this comment after the meeting, Cllr Power explained that the town’s settlement plan / development plan is valid up to 2029, and it was estimated that around half of those 569 houses could be delivered in that time frame).

He also warned KCC: “There are knock-on effects when developments do not get the go-ahead [for construction].”

“I think we need to show a little bit of urgency over this,” Cllr Power stressed.

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Once Cllr Power was finished speaking, a representative of KCC’s Housing Department, who was also present at the meeting, spoke.

They told him: “We will work with any developers or schemes to make sure that we can achieve delivery.”

The rep also asserted that KCC ‘will keep councillors informed [about any housing developments in the MD]’.

This prompted Cllr Power to say to the rep: “I hope that we will see a return by the developer [to Great Connell] and for KCC to facilitate it, as we need housing very badly.”

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Related topics: Cllr Robert Power Fianna Fáil Housing Kildare County Council An Coimisiún Pleanála Sign up to our Kildare Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Kildare Live within your account.