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Traffic chaos looming as schools return

Killarney Gardai will monitor traffic and illegal parking in areas close to schools from Monday morning.

Killarney is bracing itself for traffic chaos as schools across the town return for the first time since March 12.

In normal circumstances, the morning and evening school runs are already a headache for motorists in the town centre area, particularly on New Road which feeds three secondary and two primary schools.

The traffic is set to be much worse next week, buses carrying secondary school pupils have been reduced to 50 percent capacity due to social distancing measures. That alone will result in double the amount of busses on New Road every day.

Concerned parents may not be comfortable with their children using public bus services and could chose to directly drop their children to school every morning and collect them again that evening adding to the problem.

St Brendan’s College was due to welcome its First Year students on Friday, while St Brigid’s will take in its newcomers on Monday.

By Friday next week both secondary schools will be operating at full capacity.

Both the Mon and The Mercy primary schools welcomed their new wave of Junior pupils this week with the remaining classes set to return on Monday.

“We are aware of potential [traffic] issues and will monitor the situation on a daily basis,” a Garda spokesperson told the Killarney Advertiser. “We will work closely with other agencies like the council and the schools themselves. It is fluid and the situation is likely to change every day.”