A Kerry County Councillor has accused a colleague of ‘political skulduggery’.
Fianna Fáil's Tommy Cahill alleged, at this month's meeting of Kerry County Council, that an unnamed councillor had made false claims about the South Kerry Greenway project during an interview on Radio Kerry.
Cllr Cahill later said he was referring to independent councillor Jackie Healy-Rae.
Cllr Tommy Cahill alleged that Cllr Jackie Healy Rae had claimed on air that there had been no mention, ‘high up or low down’, of landowners on the South Kerry Greenway.
During a Radio Kerry interview last month, Cllr Healy-Rae said it’s not good enough that half of the people whose land is being used for the greenway had not been paid.
Cllr Cahill said no one has raised landowners’ concerns more than he, and that he has liaised between them, Kerry County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland,
Tommy Cahill wanted it on the record that to say otherwise was neither fair nor acceptable.
Jackie Healy Rae was not in the council chamber at the time when Cllr Cahill made his comments.
In a statement to Radio Kerry, he claimed that Cllr Cahill had in "his short time on the council" raised the plight of landowners, 'very few times, if ever.'
He said, despite what he described as Cllr Cahill’s ‘newfound interest in landowners’ the problem of payments is still unresolved.
Cllr Healy-Rae said the proper channelling of frustration with this matter should be through the council, to ensure that landowners are treated fairly and paid without further delay.
Jackie Healy-Rae said he would continue to stand up for landowners.
