Laois cemeteries require more columbarium walls
St Peter and Paul's Cemetery, Portlaoise
LAOIS requires more columbarium walls in county cemeteries and also requires an urgent increase in the budget allocation for the maintenance and upkeep of cemeteries, the latest meeting of the Laois Co Council has heard.
Cllr James Kelly brought the motion requesting better investment in cemetery upkeep and the building of more columbarium walls, grave niches usually in mausoleums where ashes can be left to rest, and received the following response from a representative of the area office: “The community section will consider funding to install columbarium walls in the interior as part of our capital indicative programme. We will also review the existing maintenance budgets for cemeteries and make appropriate recommendations as part of the wider revenue and capital budget process.”
Reacting, Cllr James Kelly said he well understood the inflationary pressures the council is under, given the current economic climate, but argued that the existing two columbarium walls in the county, one in Portlaoise and one in Killesmeestia, which is a private cemetery, would not be enough in the coming years to serve the county.
Mr Kelly said that the council should look at areas in the county where small villages overlap around a larger town, such as Abbeyleix or Mountrath, as those localities would be able to serve more people who wanted to have a place to remember their loved ones that didn’t necessarily require a drive to Portlaoise or Killesmeestia.
The councillor also noted that the budget for maintenance and services in the county, this year being €413,000 for maintenance and €110,000 for services, was already a significant decrease on the 2025 budget allocations.
He concluded: “Certain cemeteries at the moment are at maximum capacity. We have passed the local property tax today and we have disposed of land today and I know there are debts that we have to aim that towards, but I believe that we should be able to apportion some of that funding towards the provision of more columbarium walls.” Seconding the motion,
Cllr Seamus McDonald asked if there was a huge demand for the niches in Portlaoise, to which a representative of the area office explained that while the columbarium wall in Portlaoise had a capacity of 80, only 18 of the niches were filled. While the demand is going up, they said it would be some time before it threatened the available number of spaces in Portlaoise.
