By Sean Moriarty

Poor mobile phone coverage in the Black Valley area is putting lives at risk and hindering mountain rescue operations a Kerry County Council meeting has been told.

Killarney Municipal District councillor John O’Donoghue wants the Council to write to the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan to seek an upgrade to phone services in the area.

“This is particularly important in the Black Valley due to the incidence of people requiring the emergency services to rescue them on the nearby mountains,” he said at the meeting.

“The Black Valley was one of the last, if not the last place, on mainland Ireland to be electrified in 1976. That brought light to contradict its name, as well as a phone service, but unfortunately only a partial one. To think that in an area of such majestic natural beauty is without a proper phone service in unthinkable, when one considers an average of two fatalities per year unfortunately have been reported on the nearby MacGillycuddy’s Reeks each year since 2000,” he said.

“To have locals telling tales of having to drive further out of the Valley to make urgent phone calls is simply unacceptable in this day and age. Our emergency services do a wonderful and often thankless job in such areas, and I believe that situations such as this are creating unnecessary obstacles in their path," he added.

“I am aware that there are other areas in the county in a similar situation, and I would like us, as a Council, to contact the Minister and ask him to intervene immediately, even if it means subsidising a company to run a phone service into such areas, as the current service is not fit for purpose.”