There is a serious issue with the insufficient central funding Kildare County Council gets. Since I started in the Dáil I have raised deficits in Kildare covering a range of issues and especially impacting due to our growing population. These include the lack of gardaí, lack of childcare and even the water infrastructure that seems to be crumbling in our areas. In 2022 the population in Kildare was 246,000. That was a 50% increase in 20 years. We are outpacing the national averages. Despite this growth, Kildare County Council has one of the lowest expenditures per head at 33% lower than the national average. Two of my party colleagues from the council, Councillors Evie Sammon and Tracey O'Dwyer, are sitting up in the Gallery. They know all too well the deficits we have. The knock-on impact has been a lack of services in libraries, fire services, recreation and roads. Unlike nearby county councils we have had to vary our LPT upwards to try to maintain services. I am therefore formally requesting a substantially increased baseline LPT allocation from 2026 so Kildare's capital spend is in line with other local authorities with a similar population.

I thank the Deputy for raising that issue. I do not have exact detail in respect of the funding for Kildare County Council at present. I will raise it with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Browne. The Deputy correctly identifies that the population of Kildare is increasing very significantly. Obviously there are significant pressures to ensure public services are available. I will go back and have a look at the figures for gardaí in Kildare, but it is the case there are demands for gardaí everywhere and we just need to get more into the force to ensure every part of the country can have more of them.