'Bring back the men with shovels' to carry out basic road clearing work after storms in Kerry

There have been calls in Co Kerry in the aftermath of Storm Desmond, to “bring back the men with the shovels” to walk the roads and carry out basic age-old work such as clearing gullies, drains, and the eyes of bridges.

Roadworkers and crews have not been replaced in almost a decade in Kerry and the effects of natural events such as Storm Desmond are worsened when water courses are blocked, according to public representatives.

Kerry has 2,400 bridges on the road network. Blocked bridges and the need to clear watercourses have been the subject of council motions in recent months.

Rivers burst their banks on Saturday flooding nearby homes, community facilities, and businesses in the Killarney area along the River Flesk and in Kenmare town when the River Finnihy was under pressure.

The finger has been pointed this morning at a small bridge over the Finnihy River which runs through Kenmare. The bridge is too low and its eye too small to take the volume of water running into the estuary and the severity of flooding is increased, according to locals.

Water rose 600cm over the carpark alongside the Finnihy in Kenmare and businesses such as Quills Woollen and Fashion shop in the square suffered severe damage, despite sandbagging and installing a pump to keep the water from their premises.

Independent councillor Dan McCarthy said in spite of the “act of God” event of Storm Desmond, the bridge had to be looked at. He also called for more council workers. “More staff on the ground are needed,” he said.

The reduction in council road workers in recent years was simply “unrealistic”, according to Killarney area councillor Danny Healy-Rae.

“Bring back the men with the shovels,” he said.

While payroll costs have increased in recent years, there are fewer people than ever at the coalface in Kerry, he said in a claim he first made at the budget meeting of the council recently.

Almost €63m is to be spent by Kerry County Council on staffing costs including pensions in 2016, out of an overall budget of almost €125m.

However Mr Healy-Rae said that “coalface” staff on the roads programme, which is the biggest expenditure programme in Kerry, had been halved in recent years and this was despite the fact the area being covered in Killarney for instance had been extended.

In the Killarney engineering area, where there had been six crews, there are now three and yet the roads area has been extended to Castleisland.

Councillors’ allocations — individual allocations for minor road repairs and maintenance — are not being used because the staff to do the maintenance work are not there.

Councillor Healy-Rae then reiterated his call for more staff on the roads and for regular clearing of drains and maintenance and said that “when the country had nothing” this kind of work was carried out, but it had been abandoned in recent decades.

Ger O’Brien, spokesman for the council said the public service embargo meant the council was not allowed replace staff.

It was too early to give an estimate of the cost of the flooding in Kerry, as it was still being dealt with.