Should Kerry’s ‘luxury’ heritage fund be sequestered for basic maintenance?

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has slammed the provision of ‘luxury’ heritage funding while ‘basic’ tasks remain a challenge.

Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae said the €250,000 spent on ‘placemaking’ in the annual budget was ‘ridiculous’ after various examples of overgrown vegetation were raised by elected members.

The placemaking fund was approved by councillors in Kerry County Council’s 2026 budget and aspires to enhance awareness of biodiversity, culture and heritage through the greening of areas and the provision of sculptures, wall murals, arts installations and amenity areas.

At a recent Castleisland/Corca Dhuibhne Municipal District meeting, Cllr Healy-Rae highlighted overgrown grass on the N86’s cycle lanes near Lispole, while Councillor Charlie Farrelly raised the case of the Castleisland river walk and Tullig road on the outskirts of the town.

Councillors expressed their frustration at such maintenance falling by the wayside, requesting the council to acquire more staff or allow councillor allocations to be dedicated towards maintenance issues.

“We need to be able to do these basic jobs. If we need more staff we need to get them,” said Cllr Healy-Rae.

“It maddens me. We gave a quarter of a million euros to put up plaques up on walls…I don’t want to disrespect those who applied and got money…but we can do that stuff when we can cut grass on the side of the road.

“That’s a luxury when we can’t do the basics.”

Councillor Robert Brosnan added that the N86’s cycle lanes near Lispole were used frequently and called for a dedicated maintenance team within Kerry County Council.

“We need to get a dedicated team because it’s always last minute that it gets cut,” he said.

Councillor Charlie Farrelly argued that elected members should ‘at least’ be permitted to use their councillor’s allocations to fund maintenance work.

He said there had been an arrangement with locals in both the Tullig and river walk cases, but they had come to a conclusion in recent years. He appealed to the council to help out with the maintenance.

“It’s absolutely shocking at the moment this section of the road just outside of town, it’s shocking,” he said.

“And the river walk…it’s not usable at the moment.”

The council replied that some verges along the N86 had been cut and that there was more to be done.