South Kerry TD Jackie Healy-Rae has been listed among the the Dail’s top ten expenses claimants. A report in the Sunday Tribune ranks him sixth. Between 2005-2008, his travel and subsitence expenses ran to almost €300,000. Among Kerry TDs, Martin Ferris was second highest with €277,000, while Jimmy Deenihan claimed €254,000. Tom McEllistrim claimed €144,000 – less than half as much as Deputy Healy-Rae.

Figures for other Kerry deputies are not comparable because they did not serve as TDs continuously during that time.

A Kerry entrepreneur has scooped this year’s ‘Emerging Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Mike Fitzgerald is the founder of Altobridge. The company’s head quarters are in the Kerry Technology Park in Tralee, but it also has regional offices in America and Malaysia. Altobridge provides cost effective telecommunications solutions.

South Kerry TD Jackie Healy-Rae claimed more than €40,000 in travel and subsistence expenses in the first six months of this year. According to figures released to the Sunday Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act, Deputy Healy-Rae claimed three one-way trips to between Kerry and Dublin most weeks during that period. The independent deputy, who is 78, is entitled to a free travel pass on Irish Rail but declines to use it and claims expenses from the state for his travel instead.

via Radio Kerry News

Ryanair is cutting its winter flights between Kerry Airport and Stansted from 14 per week to 4. The airline says it’s because the London airport is one of its most expensive to operate from and is also blaming the impact of the Government travel tax. Ryanair says it will be increasing its Kerry – Luton service from 4 flights to seven per week. That means when this winter is compared to 2008 the overall number of Kerry to London flights drops from 14 to 11. Head of Communications with Ryanair, Stephen McNamara, says they are not using the travel tax as an excuse to cut back on routes.

The news that Killarney has been chosen to host the Irish Open golf tournament next year, has been hailed as a major boost for tourism in Kerry. Killarney’s Killeen course was chosen above rival applicants from Mount Juliet, Fota Island and Baltray, to host the event, which will be held over the August Bank Holiday Weekend. Killarney last hosted the Open in 1992, when it was won by British golfer Nick Faldo. Mayor of Killarney, Michael Gleeson, said the news couldn’t come at a better time for the town’s business people.

Up to 40 jarveys have once again been locked out of Killarney National Park. The National Parks and Wildlife Service said it had no choice after the jarveys continued to refuse to attach dung-catching devices to their jaunting cars in the park.

The NPWS said it was compelled to take this action as a very last resort. In a statement issued this morning, the NPWS says the park remains open to everybody

In July, jarveys were stopped from entering the park because none of them were using the obligatory dung-catching device. Protests followed and the jarveys made an application for a judicial review which is still before the High Court.

In the meantime, the NPWS let them back into the park in the hopes that a resolution would be found with the help of an independent facilitator. However, the facilitator has now indicated that no progress has been made because the jarveys would not engage with him.

Two houses in Tralee, Co Kerry, have been found to have among the highest levels radon ever to be identified in Europe.

The two houses have the third and fourth highest measurements of the of cancer-causing gas in Europe.

Tralee and Castleisland have 15 of the 20 highest recorded measurements in Ireland. The Radiological Protection Institute says the latest finds were 70 times higher than what is acceptable – resulting in the residents being exposed to the equivalent of nearly 47 chest X-rays per day.

It has urged people in high-risk areas to get their homes tested immediately. Only 5% of those believed to be at risk have been tested. Radon is a colourless, odourless, tasteless gas which is generated naturally from the decay of uranium in rocks and soil.

Yet radon is also the second highest cause of lung cancer because it can build-up in a basement and then seep into a house.

via rte.ie

It is understood that Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and all senior management will attend the event in Killarney in mid-October. Sources said that up to 2,000 people may attend the conference at the INEC events venue, travelling from all over the world.

Google is understood to have chartered aircraft to bring people to the event, which will focus on internal developments at the firm, as well as wider industry issues. It is not clear if the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, will attend.

A spokeswoman for Google in Ireland said the firm had no comment to make on the event and even declined to comment on whether it was taking place.

via sbpost.ie

This weekend (Friday, 2nd October to Sunday, 4th October 2009) Killarney, Co. Kerry is bracing itself for the influx of Europe’s biggest poker tour ranking event for poker pros. The Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival main event, which will take place in the Irish National Events Centre (I.N.E.C.), has long-since been sold out through a series of online satellites (series of winner-stays-on mini games) and a limited number of direct buy-ins.

Patrick O’Donoghue, Managing Director of the Gleneagle Hotel Group which serves as the accommodation hub for the festival said that it brought a much needed boost to the Killarney Tourism Sector on a slow October weekend. “The Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the beauty and opportunity which Killarney has to offer to people across Ireland and internationally,” said Mr. O’Donoghue. “The festival is in its second year and has been a fantastic success – last year there were 832 high-rolling entrants in the main tournament alone, along with all their supporters. There was also a Cork winner in 2008, but we may have a home-grown one this year, after all 2009 seems to be Kerry’s year!”

With a guaranteed prize pool of €250,000 (which last year reached €416,000) and a top prize of €100,000, the festival will be hotly contested. There are also two side-tournaments on Saturday, 3rd October and Sunday, 4th October for €270 and €150 buy-ins respectively.

The town of Killarney will be awash with high rollers and celebrities alike as Ronnie Whelan, Ken Doherty, Jimmy White, Barry Murphy (Après Match), Shane Lynch and Roy ‘The Boy’ Brindley test their wits against other poker sharks. Live bands and entertainment will take Killarney by storm for the much anticipated weekend, providing a back-drop to the tournament for those who come along to support or who exit early!

There’s been a major boost for plans to build a ring road to alleviate Tralee’s traffic congestion. An Bord Pleanala has given the go ahead to carry out the Compulsory Purchase Order and Environmental Impact Statement needed to allow work start. However, this is dependent on funding being approved and released by the National Roads Authority. A new ring road is badly needed in Tralee where long traffic tailbacks are a daily occurrence.

It’s planned to build an 8 km dual carriageway ring road around the eastern side of the town and a five and a half kilometre single carriageway joining the ring road to the N22 Killarney road at Baleagrelock.

Kerry County Council says it’s predicted that the bypass would reduce traffic in Tralee town centre by a quarter and would reduce all traffic times by a third. The CPO, that’s now been given approval, will affect 79 landowners