Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best. I apologise for missing part of the presentation because I had to participate in Leaders’ Questions.

I welcome the delegations here today. I thank the witnesses for their excellent presentations, particularly for outlining the work that they have done for the past years. It is a pity that the Ministers who have the funding and make the decisions are not here to hear from the witnesses in order to understand what they have done, their abilities and capabilities and ability to continues to do things if they were left to do so.

I am disappointed that the Kerry Leader budget has been cut by 55%, which is a massive reduction. It is very unfair that a bottom-up approach that successively operated for years has now been changed. I am worried that the more urban places will benefit rather than rural areas. The local authorities have plenty to do if they were given funding and allowed to do what they are supposed to be doing without becoming involved in the operation of the Leader project.

The witnesses have outlined the many different schemes they have been involved in. I thank the South Kerry Development Partnership in particular. It would be remiss of me if I did not mention the North East Kerry Development and IRD Duhallow that have represented the people of Kerry and done wonderful work on their behalf for the past 25 years. It would be criminal if anything happened to these organisations. I am sad to hear that the organisations have lost some of their key personnel. It is very unfortunate to lose people who have done so well and accumulated such knowledge over the years. They can never be replaced. It would be criminal to lose any of the current people in the organisations as they have so much knowledge.

The biggest problem at the minute is that the rivers are all blocked. It was interesting to hear that work has been begun by the rural social scheme in south Kerry. The witnesses have outlined how the clean up could and should be done. The organisation is successfully carrying out such work even though it has been prevented from doing this work on the Glencar side. I am amazed at such a development because I was involved in the building of roads there. We worked practically along the Blackwater River yet we did not cause any damage. There are ways of ensuring one does not damage anything. It is about time that the people who are stopping it realise that methods can be used to successfully do what is needed - to unblock the rivers and let the water flow. In Glenfask, 22 houses have been flooded and the national primary road has been flooded. What has the NRA proposed to solve the matter? It wants to raise the road. The road and the houses did not sink. Instead, the river rose higher and caused flooding. I am interested in the scheme. Can it be expanded into the eastern side of south Kerry?

I very much appreciate all of the schemes that are being operated by the organisations, especially the social farming scheme where people with disabilities are catered for. I have seen how this scheme works at first hand when I visited Kilgarvan.

Ms Earley mentioned planning. Sure, planning is a problem. Four families located on the side of the national secondary road into Killarney have been refused planning permission. There are 200 m of site distance but because of something that was inserted in legislation back in 2012 and signed into law by the then Minister, these people have been refused permission to come out on the national secondary road. It is criminal that people willing to pay to put a roof over their heads have not been granted permission. Kerry County Council gave approval but the Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála that subsequently refused permission. The idea is that people buy a house in town but there are no houses to buy in Killarney and we know there is a housing crisis. Let me give one example. Liebherr first came to Killarney in 1958 and the great businessman Mackey O'Shea showed the company a site and put them into the field where they are today. If Liebherr arrived today the company would be laughed out of the place as the site would be classified as a secondary amenity area. Liebherr employs 1,000 people today. Even if it were a new company that offered to employ 1,000 people the proposal would not be considered. That is why the people who make the laws and ensure they are implemented should consider what they are doing because people and jobs come first. If Killarney did not have those 1,000 jobs one could erect a gate at the county bounds and say Kerry is closed for business.

Agreement from landowners is important. I am interested in the proposal that farmers should be allowed to clean up the rivers but be given a grant to do so. For the past 20 years it has been deemed a criminal offence to touch the river and all of the landowners stayed away because they would lose their farm payments. These are more regulations that have caused serious problems for us in Kerry. The farmers have no problem with allowing rivers to be cleaned but it would be preferable if they were allowed do it themselves.

Agreement from landowners comes into play in another matter. We have been told that Kerry County Council and the Department have insisted on using a compulsory purchase order to get around securing agreement by landowners for the siting of the greenway from Glenbeigh to Caherciveen. The landowners have been given no consideration in this matter. It is the first space in the country whereby a compulsory purchase order will be used to secure the land for the project. That is the wrong way of doing things. If Kerry County Council had interacted more and communities were given a chance to interact with the landowners we could have got full agreement and the greenway would be under way. Now the courts are involved and I do not know where the matter will finish up. I hope that it will finish and that we will have agreement because the greenway is important to the people of Caherciveen and the people of all of south Kerry. I am very worried that this process may finish up in a negative way.

I thank the witnesses very much and I am sorry Chairman for going on. I am delighted that this committee has got the chance to hear the knowledge that these witnesses have and the positive effects they have had on Kerry and other counties over the past 20 years.