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

This is to discuss the long-awaited N22 Killarney bypass from Lissyviggeen to Farranfore and from Lissyviggeen to Castlelough on the Muckross Road, the N70, and that this be prioritised to be progressed in this year's programme.

I attended the Oireachtas transport committee last Wednesday evening and when I asked Peter Walsh, a senior official of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, whether this project was on the programme, I learned from him that it was not on the national development plan for 2024. To say the least, the people of Kerry are very disappointed with this utterance from this man. It is in this context that I am raising this issue with the Minister of State again tonight. Many people are disappointed, including Kerry County Council and the TII officials locally in Kerry who have been trying to progress this scheme for many years.

This scheme, the Killarney bypass, has been on the table for 24 years since 2000. A route was selected in 2004 and was presented to the public in the Great Southern Hotel in that year. It was dropped because of the downturn in 2008 until I started raising it again here in the House when I was elected around 2016. Because of the delay, TII decided that it should go out for public consultation again, identifying four new possible routes in 2021 and one was to be selected in April 2022.

Councillor Maura Healy-Rae raised this issue again last Monday with Kerry County Council and the reply given by the council was that the N22 Farranfore to Killarney scheme was at phase 2, options, selection stage. The draft options selection report was peer-reviewed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland in October 2022 and TII requested that additional work, including the further appraisal of all tenders, including combinations of road and non-road solutions, active travel and public transport modes which could potentially meet the scheme objectives and confirm the Climate Action Plan 2023 requirements be undertaken. This was ordained by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. TII allocations are awaited and will determine whether the option selection phase can be completed or not in 2024.

In addition, Kerry County Council have procured consultants to prepare an area-based transport assessment for Killarney and work is under way. Some €500 million to €800 million is required to allow this project to go ahead, to allow for the planning and development of our county and to assist our tourism, industry, commercial transport and, indeed, farming. Our town of Killarney has been clogged for the past number of summers, evening after evening. Above all, this is for the safety of all who use this road. There are 24,000 vehicular movements daily, six dangerous junctions intersecting on this current N22 primary road, and many lives have been lost here.

To give back the unwanted three routes to landowners who have had their land effectively sterilised for many years, I am appealing to the two Kerry Government TDs, Deputy Griffin and the Minister, Deputy Foley, to use their influence at this critical and crucial time. This is their time; this is our time. When Jackie Healy-Rae was in the position he held and when the Government was depending upon him, he used his influence. I am asking those two Deputies to use their influence now to ensure that we get for the people of Kerry what they rightfully deserve.

See this speech in context