Knotweed solution: If we can’t beat it, let’s eat it

If you can’t beat the pervasive Japanese knotweed, eat it. That was one of the solutions put forward at a meeting of Kerry County Council, which heard parts of the Kingdom are being overrun by the invasive species.

Introduced as an ornamental plant, the giant knotweed was not only uprooting road surfaces, it has delayed the building of a hospital, and is now a major problem on the banks of the Laune — one of the county’s major rivers.

Fianna Fáil councillor John Francis Flynn called for “a knotweed enforcement officer” to be appointed. “It’s out of control along the river bank,” Mr Flynn warned.