No funds for pier repair at Ballinskelligs

KCC SAYS IT’S UNLIKELY EXTRA FUNDS WILL BE GRANTED TO FIX CRACKS

KERRY County Council has said it’s unlikely funding available to them will cover the structural repairs required at Ballinskelligs Pier.

In response to a question by Councillor Norma Moriarty, the council has said it will engage with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in a bid to gain additional funding for the project.

A grant of €150,000 was received by the council earlier this year for repairs on the pier from the Department under the ‘Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme 2016 – Storm Damage Scheme’.

Kerry County Council said that their consultants are currently working on a design solution, and they will make their case for additional funding after this process has been completed.

Work on extending Ballinskelligs pier took place be- tween 2005 and 2006. Serious cracks appeared along the pier due severe winter conditions over the last few years, and Councillor Moriarty raised concerns over the pier’s failure to withstand those tests at a sitting of members of the South and West Kerry Municipal District in Killorglin on Friday.

“Other piers withstood storms, yet a pier that was worked on relatively recently has serious cracks on it”, the Fianna Fáil Councillor commented.

There is no bond in place to cover the repairs required, as the retention bond was paid to the Contractor in 2007 after the defects period expired, as per the contracts terms and conditions.

The Council has confirmed repair works – to public lighting; safety rails and mooring rings – at Caherciveen Pier will be carried out from next week.

The work is expected to be completed within the next four weeks,