Anger in Kerry as graveyard wall for storing urns costs €120,000

Each niche will cost €1,200 and hold a maximum of two urns, first online meeting of Kerry County Council told 

Columbarium walls at Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin. The first columbarium wall for the storage of urns in a public graveyard in Kerry has cost €120,000.

The first columbarium wall for the storage of urns in a public graveyard in Kerry has cost €120,000 – and each niche comes with a price tag of €1,200, councillors in Kerry have been told.

Most of the larger graveyards in Kerry towns will now need a columbarium wall, along with “ash plots”, given increasing numbers opting for cremation, this month's full Kerry County Council meeting heard.

Earlier this year, councillors claimed people were storing their loved ones' ashes in cupboards because of a lack of proper installations in the 157 public graveyards in Kerry.

The online meeting, the first in 121 years of local government in the county, saw councillors voting from their sitting rooms from Kenmare to Listowel, with management and press also engaging online.

The cost of a niche in Kerry came under fire, with at least one councillor deeming it “outrageous”.

After questioning, the council's director of services for the environment John Breen revealed that the charge in Kerry for niches, measuring 285mm-high, 400mm-wide and 230mm in depth, and suitable for a maximum two urns, would be €1,200.

The price represented “simple cost recovery” in a 100-niche wall, Mr Breen said.

This was based on the overall cost of the pilot columbarium wall in the new Killarney Burial Ground. The wall had gone out to tender, was designed and built to very high standards, and properly landscaped, he said.

The large cemetery at Rathass, Tralee, is soon to get a similar wall. “Ash plots” for the burial of urns in existing burial grounds were also being explored.

“The thing is, we are saving land – €1,200 a niche is excessive and I would ask you to revisit that," Labour councillor Marie Moloney of Killarney said.

Tralee Fianna Fáil councillor John Wall said "€120,000 to build a wall" sounded outrageous.

Ash plots, which are about one-third the size of a standard grave, are to cost €200.

Each niche was to be fronted with a plaque with a simple inscription, the policy proposed.

However, a sample of the inscription confined to name and dates was described by Fianna Fáil councillor John Wall as “too cold”. The council is now to include the address of the deceased on foot of suggestions by Cllr Moloney and others.

An attempt by the council to ban the use of pictures on the plaques was overturned on a proposal by independent councillor Jackie Healy-Rae, seconded by Killarney Fianna Fáil councillor Niall Kelleher.

The picture prohibition was to ensure that all inscriptions were respectful to their surroundings, Mr Breen said.

Killarney independent councillor Brendan Cronin said he had evidence of a “totally inappropriate” image being used.

Mayor of Kerry, Fine Gael councillor Patrick O'Connor-Scarteen said demand was rising among the non-national population and Irish people too.