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By Sean Moriarty

Senior Kerry County Council officials confirmed the opening date of the €603,000 project at Thursday’s Killarney Municipal District meeting.

Engineer David Doyle outlined further details of the controversial project at the meeting.

The structure will consist of a total of seven outdoor dining areas.

Five of them will take up an area of 30.8m2 each, and will be separated by flower boxes.

Two smaller dining areas will bookend the project, a 21.3 metre square area near of the Ross Hotel and another one of 14.6 metres squared will be positioned outside the offices of Spillane’s Auctioneers.

While local businesses will be invited to apply for licences to serve food and drinks in the dining areas, exactly half the outdoor seating will remain open to the public and consumers are free to buy products in other premises around the town.

The site will open between 8.30am and 10.30pm every day, and the council staff will take charge of putting out chairs each morning and stacking them each evening.

Retractable pergolas will be in place during these hours also.

Elected councillors raised several questions on the matter at the meeting. These included the risk of anti-social behaviour at the site, especially after hours, and how council staff and private business owners will manage the shared space.

Council engineer David Doyle said that a compliance officer would be employed to monitor the situation.
He also called for patience as council staff, business owners and members of the public adjust to the new system.

“We will trial all this from now until Christmas,” he said. “Business will contribute to the monitoring and support our staff.”

The completed structure will also include a water feature while a new walkway will connect Brewery Lane to the centre of the dining area.

Construction of the project, which is funded by Fáilte Ireland, began in May.