The National Roads Authority was called on yesterday to create a new category of road to serve major tourist centres. Busy tourist routes in Kerry, Clare, Galway and the north-west were being served by poorly funded, and, in some cases, highly dangerous roads, prone to accidents, it was claimed.
These roads were designated only as national secondary routes while the emphasis on funding nationally was on national primary routes, members of Kerry County Council told senior representatives from the NRA who attended a special meeting of the county council in Tralee.
Over 50 protesters from various groups demonstrated at the meeting.
All the money was being poured into national primary routes, and the industrial and tourist base of Kerry was being eroded as a result, the meeting heard.
In one of a series of strongly worded attacks from members, Ms Breda Moynihan-Cronin TD said Kerry had "third-world road conditions".
Kerry has "the largest network of secondary roads in the country" with over 331 kms of secondary roads, representing 12 per cent of the entire national secondary route network, the Kerry county engineer, Mr Tom Curran, said.
Their condition was poor, "and it's to do with the inadequate levels of funding nationally for all national secondary routes," he said. "The emphasis nationally is on national primary routes. This is where the money is going."
Yet the poor roads in Kerry, which were subsiding in many cases, carried over two million tourists each year, the meeting heard.
Mr Paul O'Donoghue, a brother of the Minister for Justice, called for a new category of road. "There is a need to create a new category of road called a national primary tourist route, in Kerry, in Clare in Galway and the north-west."
These national secondary roads, could not cope with the volume of traffic and a lot of serious accidents occurred as a result, he said.
Mr Michael Tobin, CEO of the NRA, said he could understand members' criticism. He said he hoped to get £400 million for improvements to national secondary roads under the next EU operational programme and £300 million for maintenance.