In contrast, Kerry County Council found itself having to buy back for public use land that was once in the ownership of CIÉ. Kerry County Council was basing its land offers on the Irish Farmers’ Association/National Roads Authority compensation for road schemes, the department noted. He added the Kerry greenway “was a forerunner of what is now the accepted standard for greenways in terms of various engineering elements such as surfacing, alignment and gradients. No project of this standard and complexity had been constructed at that time so there were no comparative costs available to the department by which to judge the Kerry County Council estimates submitted”. The estimated cost of the Kerry greenway has now reached more than €20 million, a hearing of An Bord Pleanála was told in November 2019.

Source: The Irish Times June 16, 2020 16:40 UTC