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

In places in rural Ireland such as Kilgarvan, Gortderrig, and Headfort, when a bridge on a local road goes down, why does it take 12 months or more to reopen these roads? It is a massive inconvenience to go on a five or seven mile detour for farmers, contractors and school buses. Even the ambulance came up on the wrong side for one very sick man and was delayed by over an hour finding the way back to where it should have been. It is all because of statutory processes that the Department is requesting, including environmental and planning assessments for structures that have been in place for more than 140 years. If this was in Dublin or Cork city, people would not be inconvenienced to this extent. Why are we allowing this to happen?

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