Greenways Provision
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-28
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

The first point I will make is that greenways will have significant benefit to the local areas, as the Deputy said, in terms of significant benefits beyond the transport sector in areas such as regional economic development, public health, climate resilience and economic activity. The point the Deputy made is that it is important that three sections of the Kerry greenway will be open to the public by the summer. I will restate that it is, and should be, as the Deputy said, the primary objective across all proposed greenway schemes to acquire land voluntarily. In the transport committee in November, TII committed to reviewing the code this year. In tandem, the Government will review the parent greenway document strategy. I will come back to that again another day with the Deputy. It is important that best practice for regional and national greenways is that we do not enter into CPOs as a first resort, that it is the last resort, that there is engagement, connection and conversation, and that it is voluntary land acquisition.
I ask Deputy Healy-Rae to be that conduit. I believe, and will make the point, that Kerry County Council has said it is a priority for it that it will settle land acquisition arrangements. I hope it will because they are landowners. As the Deputy said, they are people who have worked hard for the land that they have. Equally, it is important that all lines of communication are open and that there is an opportunity to be taken to resolve the matter to ensure we see a positive solution that can be achieved for all the people living and working in south Kerry. I hope we will see progress. We need to see that done. The Deputy is right; there is no point in driving and dividing people. It is about bringing people together, and we all benefit from that.
I thank the Deputy for raising the matter on behalf of the people of south Kerry. I have it my own constituency. I am fully aware of the issues he has raised. It is one that we need to see common sense in as well, because it is about people. People in these cases are not looking to cause trouble. They are looking to protect themselves and do what is best for their communities. I am sorry to the staff for running over time.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-28