Odds stacked against North Kerry

SIR,

On attending a function in Ballylongford a few years ago I was welcomed to “the village that financed the downfall of an Empire”, referring to the Asgard gunrunning into Howth. How things have changed in a hundred years.

Ballylongford is again hitting the headlines, this time some would say being sacrificed to facilitate a stable Irish government being formed, prompting the Green Party to lay the blame on successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments for “the economic neglect of north Kerry.”

Neglect is an interesting word, implying deterioration through possible carelessness, oversight or by accident. What if the “economic neglect of north Kerry” is planned and actually zoned?

Let us look at Kerry County Council’s 2017 submission to the National Framework Plan 2040, planning the county’s economic development for the next 20 years.

In that document the entire Listowel Municipal District is excluded from both the ‘ Tralee/ Killarney Industrial Hub’ and the ‘Knowledge Economy Cluster’,

the areas of the county zoned by council for future Manufacturing industry and IT industry.

Let us look at Kerry County Council’s “Landscape Character Assessment of Kerry”, in which council repeatedly states in minute detail that almost the entire north Kerry region’s landscapes are “not important for scenery, tourism or recreation” – including Ballybunion beach – and on this basis zones the region as eminently suitable for onshore wind farms in this planning zoning document.

In summary, North Kerry is condemned by Kerry County Council, endorsed by central government, as a non-industry, non-IT and non-tourism region. Under these ongoing, live policies, it is impossible for North

Kerry to have any future.

Pre- COVID politics meant that several Ministers refused to intervene to change the Landscape Character Assessment in written replies and Parliamentary Questions – Murphy, Humphreys and even Ross as Minister for Tourism.

It is nothing short of a scandal that our ‘ top politicians’ in the last government knew the full details of the LCA but refused to intervene to have this policy changed. Perhaps Ballylongford’s sacrifice will bring international attention to this ongoing, current scandal.

If the era of “New Politics” is dawning in Ireland, morality, accountability, transparency and ethics, it is the ultimate test of the Green Party’s ethics (and any Independent TDs that may be invited to form the next government) that they include in their terms for entering the ‘new Ireland’ government, a demand for a full public inquiry into Kerry County Council’s Landscape Character Assessment and council’s submission to the National Framework Plan.

The blame game is old politics.

The post- COVID public wants change, North Kerry needs change in attitude in the authority that has mapped out even more social and economic deprivation for this scenic, historic region which, unaided, birthed in a caravan the second biggest company on the Irish Stock exchange.

Consider the post- COVID EU millions, the distribution of which in the county will likely be decided upon by Kerry county council.

Is the region stated by the same council to be non-Tourism, non-Industry and non-IT, likely to benefit? North Kerry must replace complacency with urgency.

Sincerely,

John O’Sullivan, Charles St,

Listowel