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

I hope this new programme for Government delivers for County Kerry because Kerry has definitely left behind for a lot of years now. Even Killarney is in a desperate state. It needs a bypass first of all but in the short term daily traffic is going in to Killarney from every side meaning that people are now avoiding it. That is detrimental to tourist providers and to business in the town and we need to do something in the interim to ensure the traffic is freed up in Killarney. We have over 660 other roads on the list and we are doing 24 a year. We need to up that by four times the amount. We need to be doing at least 100 so that the roads could be done in six or seven years. Blackwater Bridge to Sneem was left behind last year again because of Eamon Ryan. It was shovel-ready to start last January. It never started because it got no funding. Bridges like Listry Bridge, Boston bridge and all the bridges around the Ring of Kerry were built over 200 years ago. They were only built for horses and carts.

We need hospitals properly staffed and we need the new community hospital in Killarney to be open right away. We need to value farmers and not be blaming them. We need to do something to encourage farmers' sons or daughters to get into the farming because they are not doing it at present. They are going to avoid it.

On planning, so many people would build their own houses in Kerry if they could get planning permission but they cannot - even on their own land. If it is not a farm, they will not get planning permission beside their mothers and fathers.

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