Will planning be granted again for controversial plans for prime Kerry site?

Irish Independent

20-05-2025

Having been granted planning by councillors earlier this year there was wide-spread condemnation of the plans with anger particularly focused on the planned HSE primary care centre on what is a prime town centre site.
The development is to consist of a three-storey Theatre and Community building with a screened rooftop plantroom and a six-storey Primary Care Centre.
A Public Plaza and a revised vehicular entrance to Lewis Road carpark is also part of the plans.
However, now due to a significant error by the council in the process the plans have now gone out to the public for submissions once again. This also means that once the public given their views, a report will be presented to Killarney councillors, and they will have to vote on whether or not to grant planning for the second time.
Following an internal procedural checking process by Kerry County Council, it was found in recent weeks that in four separate instances there were a number of submissions, made through their online public consultation portal, which had not been taken into account during the Part 8 development process.
Each of these proposed projects will require to be brought back to the respective Municipal Districts for consideration and this includes the controversial Áras Phádraig plans.
The process is now open again for the public to give their views and they can do so until June 4 through the council website.
At the time of the original public consultation, only 15 submissions were received, 13 of which were from the public.
Some expressed concern about the primary care centre with one submission expressing 'dismay' that the prime site would be given over to this development.
Concerns about traffic the HSE primary care centre would draw to the area already described as a 'bottleneck' were also raised by the public.
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The Killarney Chamber of Commerce in their submission highlighted this loss of parking but welcomed the theatre saying 'Killarney had been deprived of such a facility for a long time.'
The public submissions also focused on the design of the theatre and sought assurances that it would have all the necessary facilities to function as a theatre. Several submissions supported the need for this building for not only performances but visual arts too.
Given their was some consternation again much of which was focused on the HSE primary care centre it now remains to be seen whether the public and the councillors will strengthen their opposition to the development of the prime Kerry site.