The Government is facing bills of over €46m from Clare and Kerry councils for the damage caused by the storms that ravaged the counties.

It will be at least a week before Kerry County Council has carried out full assessment of the damage, as well as an estimate of the cost of repairs and long-term work required to protect the county’s vulnerable coastline.

The overnight storm helped to underline a 500-pupil school’s case for a permanent building to replace prefabs.

The county council in an area with one of the largest concentrations of holiday homes in the country is to continue pursuing people who do not pay the €200 charge on second homes.

Tourist town Killarney has been “bypassed” on road signs on a newly-opened €100m route in north Kerry, a prominent businessman in the town has claimed.

Emergency services at the scene of a fatal gas explosion in Killarney, Co Kerry, at the weekend did not immediately carry out a search of the scene because of safety concerns for their personnel.

A local authority has been accused of lacking leadership in a heated row which could scupper plans for a major tourist walking and cycling trail along a disused railway line.

Road L7046 in the heart of rural east Kerry could be in the running for the dubious record for having the most potholes per metre.

As shortlived as a smile, Irish snow rarely lasts beyond lunchtime, and so, while yesterday began as the best Monday ever for many children, come home time, the whiteness was gone.

Hidden CCTV cameras will continue to be used at illegal dumping hotspots in Co Kerry this year.

Kerry County Council has said a fly infestation problem in north Kerry in recent days was most likely caused by work being carried out at its landfill site at Muingnaminnane.

The need for urgent action to tackle a worsening coastal erosion problem at one of Kerry’s most popular beaches was highlighted yesterday.

AS election candidates in Kerry pick up the pieces and count the cost of posters torn from poles during yesterday’s violent gusts of wind, image-conscious Killarney has declared all-out war on public displays of election literature.

THERE were widespread water supply restrictions across Co Kerry again last night.

AFTER a low of -9C in some parts of the country overnight, Met Éireann is predicting another 48 hours of bitterly cold weather before temperatures finally begin to rise once more.

WORK is “extremely well advanced” on providing a €137 million bypass for traffic-choked Tralee.

KERRY has about 7,000 acres with a residential zoning and councillors, who so freely zoned land during the years of the construction boom, are now faced with the daunting task of “dezoning”.

KERRY may be in the No 1 position in relation to Gaelic football but it could end up at the bottom of the national broadband league.

ANGLERS are seeking a ban on fishing in a river where thousands of fish died after a landslide two weeks ago.

SEVERAL tonnes of loose peat which poured down a river in north Kerry yesterday caused another road blockage.

KERRY County Council staff were yesterday continuing their efforts to restore access to a house still isolated in the wake of the weekend landslide at Kielduff, near Tralee.

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.

WORK has started on the building of a new road at Slea Head in the Dingle Peninsula to replace a section that collapsed several months ago.

CANDIDATES whose posters block road traffic signs in Kerry have been told by the county council to take them down.

PARTS of one of the country’s most popular tourist routes, the Slea Head Drive, were yesterday closed to traffic after a section of cliff supporting the road collapsed into the sea.

TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to the integrity and remarkable spirit of public service displayed by distinguished judge and former Lord Mayor of Cork Sean O’Leary who died last week.