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

I am not in any way blaming TII. The relevant Minister has been quoted as saying it was not a priority, so I do not know the status of it but we will say no more about that. We have been waiting for a long time. When the proposal was put to us on a massive display in the Great Southern hotel in 2004, a lot of work had gone into it by then, so we thought the timeframe would have been two or three years at that time. To set out one aspect of it, at present the Killarney bypass is called the Killarney bypass. There are more than 23,000 movements on it most days and six dangerous junctions intersect with it where people have been killed or seriously maimed. We want this route to help people travel safely. It is also choking the town of Killarney economically. I am just making the case to the witnesses and would appreciate if they could bring it forward or hurry it on at all.

The N22 in the Glenflesk valley was for many years prone to flooding, culminating with many deputations coming into the town hall in Killarney, notices of motion and so on. We were told cleaning the river would make very little difference, or at least that it would make a difference of only 10 mm in a once-in-a-hundred-year flood. The road was being flooded any time there was heavy rain until 2018 and after a lot of requests and battles, we got a small sum from the then Minister of State, Kevin “Boxer” Moran, and the river was cleaned. There have been heavy rains since then but at no time in any of the floods of the past six years has the road been flooded. At that time, the TII and Kerry County Council engineers were saying we would have to raise the road.

Rightfully, the residents along the road were afraid that they would be flooded worse. The road can be raised but we cannot lift up the houses in the same way. It would be grand if we could. I think it was done in Chicago about 120 years ago when it was being flooded.

When clearing the river, all that we did was cut the bushes that were blocking it. We did not take any of the build-up of the gravel or silt. If that was done, it would have been a gallant job altogether for many years. One would not have had to look at it at all. Could some kind of a maintenance programme be initiated to ensure that the good work that has been done is kept alive? Those bushes will grow again. The truth is that when you cut a bush, one stem will grow many more branches. We are getting worried that we will be back at square one again and that, rather than clearing the river, the proposal will be to raise the road again. I want to highlight that and ask the witnesses if there is any way to progress this and get a scheme going to maintain the banks of the river and ensure it does not flood again.