Chamber: Road access tops concerns for visitors to town

A NATIONAL route linking Cork and Kerry continues to be a key negative factor for tourists travelling to Killarney, it has been claimed.

Members of Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, who promoted the town at a recent international travel show in Birmingham, discovered visitors’ main concerns related to road access.

“It was surprising that while there were only a few mentions of costs, the vast majority of negative comment related to the much-debated question of access,” chamber executive Jerry O’Grady said.

He said there was particular unhappiness with the absence of the Cork-Swansea Ferry throughout 2007 and also the dire condition of the road between Cork and Killarney.

For the past two years, he said, Killarney Chamber had campaigned and lobbied on the urgently-needed improvements to the N22 from Ovens to Ballyvourney, a vital lifeline of road section for Kerry.

“Kerry citizens and visitors to the county are living with the legacy of decades of apparently deliberate neglect of this section of road by Cork County Council,” Mr O’Grady claimed.

“When the NRA took over responsibility for national roads, we were hopeful that equity would apply and matters would improve but, unfortunately, our confidence was not well founded.

“If the latest plans for the Atlantic Corridor come to pass, then it will be critical that the Ovens- Ballyvourney road isreplaced in advance.”

Regarding the Cork-Swansea Ferry, he called for full support for the campaign to restore the service for the 2008 season.

The Port of Cork is understood to be actively involved in negotiations with two operators, in relation to the restoration of a ferry service on the Cork-Swansea route.

Cork County Council is expected to start work on a major new section of the N22, which will include bypasses of Macroom and Ballyvourney.