Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the opportunity to raise this matter in the Chamber. First, I have to explain the present setup. The national primary road coming into Killarney from the Cork side is a very busy road as it is. It goes through what we know locally as Daly's roundabout and then carries on to the old bypass, which has been built for over 50 years, to Tralee, Killorglin, all of mid-Kerry and wherever you want to go after that. Approximately 40,000 vehicles go through that roundabout each day, maybe 18,000 or 19,000 into Killarney town and 21,000 on to the other places I mentioned. The roundabout itself works perfectly. Most times when people reach it, they may have to queue to get from one side to the other. Then they get relief when they go through the bypass. It works perfectly. I never see it clogged or blocked. Even at that, the queues can be 3 miles or 4 miles backed up on either side coming in from the Cork Road or coming in from the Tralee Road into Killarney, or indeed coming up to Dr. Hans Liebherr Road if people are coming from Killorglin.

Now, under active travel, which the previous Government had in place, the present Government proposes to take away the roundabout and instead put five or six sets of traffic lights there on either side of the road and down to the Ballycasheen junction, where people come in from the Cork side. Two sets of cycleways and footpaths are also proposed - there are footpaths there already - and it is proposed to narrow the carriageway to 6 m, which I contend is not wide enough for the vehicles we have today. A suggested €3 million, TII locally and the council say, is to be spent on it. I suggest it will cost a lot more.

It is premature. What we need now is to build an outer bypass, which we have been campaigning for for 24 or 25 years. We have been promised €3 million for this year to progress that and to bypass the town, starting outside at Lissivigeen, going northwards west through Kilcummin and coming out in Farranfore, bypassing the whole lot. All of what is proposed now would be fine if that were done first, but it must be remembered that the roundabout to be taken away is on the N22, the national primary road into Killarney and the rest of Kerry.

Before this project goes ahead, I ask that temporary traffic lights be placed at every point where it is suggested there will be traffic lights, and at the roundabout especially. Temporary traffic lights should be put there for a week or two - it should be two weeks - to ensure that they will work and we will not have a complete disaster. We are bad enough with traffic in Killarney as it is. A similar project has been carried out in Fossa, where they narrowed the road. Two large vehicles when they meet there cannot pass each other without stopping up altogether and trying to inch their way past each other, what with mirrors and everything sticking out. It is not right to do that. That is the N72, the national secondary road. What we are talking about here is the national primary road, and to do this is very serious. Maura Healy-Rae has asked for the temporary lights to be placed before the work is undertaken. I am asking the Department of Transport go down, talk and look at this project with the officials, if they are involved, and-----

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