Killarney Town Hall is literally cracking under the strain of new tourist accommodation nearby.
While there have for a long time been cracks in the building, estimated to be 100 years old, major construction work on the new 220-bedroom Killarney Plaza Hotel alongside has resulted in several fresh cracks and has widened existing ones.
Ironically, proposals to curb development in the Co Kerry tourist town include limiting all guesthouses to four bedrooms. Mr Donal Grady, urban councillor and head of fire services in Killarney, said: "The situation is a lot more serious than people realise." He said he no longer felt safe sitting in the council chamber because the gable wall of the town hall could give way. He is calling for a health and safety report on the building to determine the true extent of the cracks, including those in the foundations. "There are splits in the ceilings and in the walls that weren't there before. I am worried, too, about other buildings nearby," he said.
Part of the new inner relief road which opened last summer has also subsided, and this has also been linked to the construction of the six-storey hotel on the site of the former Three Lakes Hotel.
Work on the hotel includes excavation to 25 feet to provide for an underground car-park. The Killarney town engineer, Mr Donal Mangan, said it was important that "the public purse won't suffer because of progress".
"Ongoing joint inspections of the building between council and hotel engineers are taking place, and the town hall will be underpinned before further excavation works are carried out next door."
There was no cause for alarm, he said, because as the engineers for the Plaza have had taken a responsible attitude," he said.
Yesterday Mr Paul Murphy, a consultant engineer for the Killarney Plaza project, said any expenses would be met by the developers.
The £10 million hotel is due to open next September.
Meanwhile, Killarney, the second-fastest growing town in Ireland after Naas, `cannot keep growing indefinitely, said a planning officer, Mr Michael Geraghty. "There has been an explosion of accommodation in Killarney in recent years. There has to be a cut-off point."