Kerry seeks island status due to roads neglect

Kerry is to press ahead with its attempt to seek island status, a meeting of Kerry County Council has been told.

An application for special derogation for Kerry on the grounds of neglect of basic infrastructure by the Government and the National Roads Authority (NRA) was not facetious, the meeting was told. It was dominated by discussions on the condition of the county’s roads.

Cllr Michael Gleeson of South Kerry Independent Alliance first floated the idea of seeking island status for the Kingdom in November and he is now seeking a delegation to go to the EU with the petition.

The main access points in to the county were, in reality, “obstacles”, the meeting was told, with hours of delays from Limerick because of a failure to build a bypass at Adare, and substandard roads in to the county from Cork, along with the lack of a bypass at Macroom.

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Kerry was already an island because of “neglect and indifference” by the NRA, the meeting heard, with the Government access now so deplorable that it needed confirmation from Europe to access the extra grant aid that would follow the special status.

Pictures of potholes on the N22 along the Cork-Kerry border were shown to the meeting by Mr Gleeson, who said the surface had a 20-year lifespan which expired in 2013.

The road is used by ambulances, cyclists, the Cork Cancer Bus ferrying Kerry sufferers for daily treatment, tourists, and lorries.

Mr Gleeson said: “When I called for island status for Kerry, people thought I was being facetious. I was not. When I proposed going to Europe to seek special status for this county, I was not exaggerating.”

Hoteliers had told him the single biggest complaint by tourists was the state of the road in to Kerry.

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