Kerry County Council has been warned it needs to accommodate larger families as its policy of building two-or three-bedroom homes is restricting the family size of young couples to just one child, “a bit like China”.

Work has begun on the demolition and clearance of 2.3 acres of industrial ground in the heart of Tralee, Co Kerry, gifted to the town last year by the Kerry Group which is headquartered in the town.

Claims against Kerry County Council for pers- onal injuries and damage resulted in payments of more than €1.5m since 2014, it has emerged.

Kerry County Council has been slammed for undertaking work at a holy well, a recorded monument, which some locals believe may be the site of the original crystal fountain associated with the Rose of Tralee.

Payroll costs, including travel and subsistence, represent the biggest single expense for Kerry County Council, its 2016 budget meeting was told yesterday.

Planning permission has been granted for a full mosque with a Muslim Community Centre on the outskirts of Tralee.

A decision on planning permission for a mosque in Tralee, Co Kerry, has been stalled pending confirmation over whether a call to prayer public address system is to be installed in the 23m high minaret attached to the structure.

A local authority is to crack down on landowners who fail to properly maintain roadside trees and hedges.

Kerry County Council is to install a ‘motion sensor flushing system’ in all of its public toilets in an effort to save water and money.

A move to extend the ban on smoky coal to a leading tourist town, where air pollution far exceeds EU and World Health Organisation limits, has been resisted by councillors.

All new burial grounds in Kerry are to be lawn-style, with no kerbing allowed around graves.

I can’t help wondering, will a garda be present in all pubs to issue a permit to drive — (motion passed in Kerry Council).

The Justice Minister Alan Shatter has said the idea of drink driving permits is "grossly irresponsible".

Fears for the future of a €5m swimming pool complex in Ballybunion could lead to Kerry Co Council being forced to pay almost €4m to the Government.

CONCERN over the state of the water and banks in parts of the south-west is being passed from one statutory body to another.

FINANCIAL cutbacks will lead to lay-offs among temporary staff in Kerry County Council.

AN improvement in the quality of drinking water from Lough Guitane — one of the main sources in Kerry — was a major priority this year, Kerry County Council pledged yesterday.

HARD-UP publicans and shopkeepers in villages and small towns around Kerry may be unable to pay their rates this year, it was claimed yesterday.

Donal Hickey

A MOVE by a group of Kerry councillors to allow private houses to be sold as holiday homes after they have been lived in by the original owners for two years has failed.

A SINN FÉIN TD who kept his medical card after being elected to the Dáil said yesterday he was in the process of getting private health insurance.