Eilish has been campaigning for more open spaces for people of all ages, but especially for children and older residents. She and others started the Facebook group called Ratoath Needs a Community Voice to highlight this issue.

In particular, the group has  been campaigning for the derelict HSE site to be used (on a permanent or temporary basis) either as a health facility or other public amenity. The group gathered 500 signatures in support. To date the HSE has refused to make the land available or to announce a date for development for HSE services. 

This campaign influence the Council to buy the site opposite Supervalu which will now be developed.

We need more houses and apartments in Meath, that's not in doubt. We have a housing crisis.

But we need better planning from Meath County County Council so that people don't end up in houses and apartments with inadequate facilities.

Eilish Balfe wants to see greater linkages between the granting of planning permissions for new developments and the putting in place of essential infrastructure.

This includes water - as well as other essentional services such as schools, early years centres, safe roads and paths, and more.

An esential part of local infrastrcture is public transport. Eilish has been actively campaigning for better services, including a direct service to Dublin and a shuttle service to Dunboyne Station.

Eilish has been pressing for immediate safety measures to be put in by Meath County Council at the village centre. There have been several near misses in recent times. Motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists are all entitled to safe public spaces.

To date Meath County Council has been slow to respond to local demands. A Part 8 process has been completed and the Council says that the funding is there for road and path developments. However, it is impossible to get any implementation dates from them. 

If eleted, Eilish will make it a priority to get early action to make the village centre a safer place to walk, cycle, drive, and shop in.

There are few facilities for young people in Ratoath. People complain about them 'hanging around' the shops and other places.

But where are they supposed to go to meet up with each other?

We have a great range of facilities for young people who are interested in sports.

But we need more indoor and outdoor actitivies, clubs etc for our young people.

On all of her canvassing rounds, Eilish has heard from people about the hardships caused  by regular water outages.

Irish Water and the Council say that it is all in hand and that the infranstructure will be upgraded soon. But people are still suffering from unplanned outages.

Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin have libraries and it remains something of a mystery as to why Ratoath with a larger population does not have one. Eilish did a small survey that showed very strong support for a library for Ratoath.

The survey also showed that a considerable number of local people were willing to become involved in the development of a library.