News
Killarney facing rental property dilemma

By Sean Moriarty
There is a chronic shortage of long-term properties to rent in the town – with just five in a 10km radius this week listed on rental website daft.ie.
There are over 600 short stay properties, in the same radius, available on airbnb.ie. The Government could make a decision within the next 10 days to further restrict the short-term letting of houses and apartments in an effort to appease the national housing shortage.
However, these are the very properties that visitors to Killarney want to rent – and any attempt to reduce available holiday properties in the town will be met with opposition from the town’s tourism leaders.
It will also lead to more expensive holidays for tourists (both Irish and international) as they face ever increasing costs against the backdrop of less choice.
"The visitors who come to rural Ireland for a few months mean a lot to the local economy in rural places such as Gneeveguilla, Scartaglin and Kilgarvan,” Danny Healy-Rae TD told the Dáil during a Lettings Enforcement Bill debate.
“It boosts the local pub or shop. That means something. We should not deprive those people of that. The other thing is these visitors want to experience rural areas. They perhaps left cities and hotels and gave half their life living in those very bright-light urban areas and want to experience a local place. If we hurt those people who operate what they call this Airbnb system, it would be wrong.”
He called on the Government to fund local county councils so they can build more affordable housing.
“I feel this bill is interfering with the democratic rights of house holders to do what they chose with their own property. Rents are expensive but this is not the way to deal with it, they need to build more houses as a matter of urgency,” he added.
"There are two major issues here; one is planning permission where the only place that seems to be available is Killarney where sites are costing €1 million an acre now, and the other issue is the increased cost of materials to build a house.”
News
Massive Park Road housing development given green light
A private developer has been given planning permission to build 249 new residential units at Upper Park Road. The development, which will be built on a recently cleared site near […]

A private developer has been given planning permission to build 249 new residential units at Upper Park Road.
The development, which will be built on a recently cleared site near An Post’s sorting office, will include a variety of properties from five-bed houses to single apartments, along with a crèche and over 500 car spaces and over 300 bike spaces.
The development has been welcomed by local councillor Martin Grady.
“Killarney has a massive housing shortage so this is very positive. It will retain young families in the area, stimulating economic growth,” he said. “After 17 years of different planning applications it’s finally coming to fruition.”
News
Ballydribeen residents living in fear due to anti-social behaviour
Residents in the Ballydribeen are living in fear as a result of increased anti-social behaviour in the estate. Several serious incidents in the estate have resulted in several Garda visits […]

Residents in the Ballydribeen are living in fear as a result of increased anti-social behaviour in the estate.
Several serious incidents in the estate have resulted in several Garda visits in the last week.
Local councillor Martin Grady told the Killarney Advertiser that residents are “living in fear” as a result of very serious incidents in the last week alone.
One house in the estate was badly damaged when fire crackers were placed inside a letter box.
Another house had its windows smashed in over the weekend.
“It’s a major problem,” added Grady after meeting residents there earlier this week.
One of the most serious incidents occurred on Tuesday night.
A passing motorists had rocks thrown at his car while driving along the bypass whch is adjacent to the estate.
Taking to social media, local primary-school teacher Pádraig O’Sullivan posted:
“Travelling home tonight, at 11.05pm on the Killarney side of the bypass our car was hit by a rock – not a pebble – from the Ballydribben side , which hit the passenger door.
“It was centimetres away from hitting the window where my father, who is visually impaired, was sitting.
“This could have caused catastrophic permanent injury to him.
“The Killarney Garda were on the scene within three minutes.
“They can’t be patrolling the bypass all night.
“It comes down to parenting. You should know where your children are at this hour and be able to teach them what’s funny and what ruin a person’s life or cause a fatal crash.“
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