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

We have been waiting 36 years for the Macroom bypass. Some of it will be built next year but it will not be connected to Ballincollig when many people thought it would be.

While we are glad to have people coming to Killarney and County Kerry, the old Killarney bypass is badly congested. In 2004, we were shown grand plans in the Malton Hotel in Killarney for an improved bypass to be up and running by 2009. We are going into 2018 now and still nothing has happened. There have been fatalities on the old bypass - two people have already been killed this year - due to congestion and bad junctions.

On the review of the local community and development committees, will the Minister of State go back to what we had before? The previous system worked for 25 years. No Leader programme has been in place since 2013. The last one was initiated by the then Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív. We are going into 2018 but there is still is no programme. The previous Government messed it up. The man who went to Europe, Phil Hogan, blew it all asunder.