Transport Minister Eamon Ryan is refusing to engage with local councillors in relation to the proposed new road between Killarney and Farranfore.

The revealing of the preferred route corridor for the construction of the new Killarney to Farranfore road has been delayed – again.

Four potential routes for the N22 Farranfore-Killarney project were identified and were put out to public consultation in May 2021.
It was previously promised that the preferred route would be published late in 2022.

This dragged on and on and by November last year, local councillors were growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress,
They wrote to the minister seeking an urgent meeting with him but it was revealed this week that he has not yet replied to the November letter.

“To date no response has been received from the Minister's Office,” a council official told this week’s Killarney Municipal District meeting.
The matter was raised by both Cllr Niall ‘Botty’ O’Callaghan and Cllr John O’Donoghue.

“The problem here is not at Council level, it is at Governmental level where either a gross incompetence, or gross negligence on behalf of the Minister for Transport, has resulted in the current impasse whereby Kerry County Council must carry out feasibility studies in order to select the route, and the Minister for Transport appears to be obstructing them accessing the necessary funding to carry out these studies,” O’Donoghue told the meeting.

“He now absolutely must allow the route selection studies to progress as a matter of extreme urgency. I will continue to fight for this impasse to be resolved for as long as is necessary as the current situation is unfair, untenable and unsustainable. I propose we write to the Minister, not asking, but demanding funding so we can take action on the issue. The ball is firmly in Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan’s court and we can’t play until he hits it back to us.”