Kerry 'tourist police' needed to control visitors during summer

Banna beach is one of many Kerry beaches proving a big attraction for staycationers.

Kerry needs 'tourist police' to control tourist numbers and behaviour this summer says one councillor who notes that we "cannot invite everybody and then not control them". 

With huge numbers of staycationers in Kerry this July, and after a weekend when beaches, towns, and parks were packed,  Kerry County Council has heard how “tension” between locals and tourists rose in the pandemic.

The local authority needs to start looking at tourist police to control numbers and behaviour on beaches and towns — and the balance between tourist and local welfare is a discussion that was needed, even outside of Covid-19, west Kerry councillor Breandán Fitzgerald, FF, said.

He told  Kerry County Council's monthly meeting  that “tension between locals and tourists is getting to a very high point". 

The matter arose during a meeting which heard of schemes to attract tourists but also of efforts to maintain safe social distancing. Tralee councillor Jim Finucane (FG) disagreed with the tourist police proposal: “We can’t offer vouchers to come to this county if at the same time we are employing tourist police.”

Proper direction needs to be given by the HSE, said Killarney councillor and hotelier, Niall O’Callaghan (Ind).

His emergency motion to review the delay in opening rural pubs was unanimously backed: “We have beaches that are packed and with very little social distancing but then I can’t go to a football match on Friday night because a stadium (Fitzgerald’s Stadium in Killarney) that holds 43,000 people is only allowed 40 people per team."

His own family pub is open but he wants to speak for others who need to put bread on the table for their families. Mr O'Callaghan said he knew of a party in a space the size of a small garage with 60 people packed into it: “We are closing the pubs and we have shebeens and parties operating all over the country."

Other councillors told of how tourist businesses need to put tables on pavements to expand their areas — but this is interfering with social distancing  for passers-by.

“We are damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” is how Cllr Marie Moloney described the dilemma.

Chief executive, Moira Murrell, said targeted measures including visual signs around social distancing have been erected by the council.