PROPOSAL: Replace KCDP 6-9, “Promote the delivery of social infrastructure and high-quality services, at appropriate locations, through collaboration with the Kerry Public Participation Network (PPN)”, with “Promote the delivery of social infrastructure, high-quality services, and climate and biodiversity action projects through collaboration with the Kerry Public Participation Network (PPN).”
RATIONALE: As stated in the PPN Handbook, “A Public Participation Network (PPN) is a structure that brings together Community and Voluntary, Environmental and Social Inclusion groups in each local authority area”. The KCDP 6-9 as it stands is not inclusive of the environmental aspect of PPN groups and should be altered to reflect the make-up and purpose of PPNs more accurately.
PROPOSAL: Add an additional objective in section 6.2.2, Healthy Communities: “Promote the importance of clean air and water, and work to both monitor and reduce the level of air and water pollution in the county”.
RATIONALE: Clean air and water are key aspects of a healthy environment, and a healthy environment is one of the prerequisites for a healthy community. As a common good, air and water quality needs to be addressed at government level. Local government has a key role in both monitoring air and water quality levels in the county, raising awareness of the current state of air and water pollution, and working to reduce air and water pollution.
While there is reference in Chapter 11 to improving air quality, there is no reference there to monitoring air quality to ensure transparency and that measures taken are effective. Also, there should be a policy objective around air quality in the ‘Healthy Communities’ section of Chapter 6 in addition to the environment chapter. The fact that it is appropriate to include a policy objective in two chapters demonstrates its importance.
PROPOSAL: In section 6.3, Community Infrastructure, Services and Facilities, add an additional objective: “Encourage and support the use of vacant, unused or infrequently used buildings by communities, e.g., closed schools, churches, GAA halls, while working transparently with all stakeholders involved.”
RATIONALE: The Program for Government, Our Shared Future, sets out the Government’s plan to implement a Circular Economy Action Plan. A key aspect of the circular economy is to reuse and repurpose things that have served their original use to avoid waste of resources. In the context of the current housing crisis, and construction supply chain difficulties, it will be important to make optimal use of the county’s current building stock, which should include working with stakeholders to make available unused or infrequently used buildings for communities.
PROPOSAL: Add an additional objective in section 6.3, Health Services: “Promote Sláintcare’s SH24 service to encourage non-symptomatic Kerry citizens, particularly young people, to avail of the service’s free sexual health tests.”
RATIONALE: There is currently limited awareness in Kerry of the SH24 service, which provides a free self-administered testing service for sexually transmitted infections. As a predominantly rural county with very limited access to sexual health services, and considering the recently suspected large volume of undiagnosed Syphilis cases in Kerry (HSE concerned about undiagnosed syphilis cases in Kerry and Cork | RadioKerry.ie), this service should be advertised by the local authority to improve access to sexual healthcare in Kerry. This would be an effective way of improving community health without additional use of development resources in the county.
PROPOSAL: Add an additional objective in section 6.3.4, Education and Lifelong Learning: “Promote and support the development of apprenticeships in the county as alternatives to third level education options and promote awareness of current apprenticeship options.”
RATIONALE: The government document, Our Rural Future, published in 2021, supports significantly increasing the number of apprenticeships to both promote alternatives to third level education and address the skills gap in certain sectors, including the construction sector, as well as emerging sectors linked to climate change mitigation, such as clean energy and green tech.
PROPOSAL: Add an additional objective in section 6.3.4, Education and Lifelong Learning: “Small schools should not be closed where they possess reasonable pupil numbers, and when there are clear justifiable savings in travel time and energy for the students. Kerry County council should encourage Kerry schools to participate in any available nationwide programmes aimed optimising resources in rural schools, such as the current Cluster pilot.”
RATIONALE: Schools in rural areas are often a key binder of communities. When schools close in rural areas, it can lead to an evaporation of the community. In addition, car journeys carrying children to schools comprise a significant proportion of car journeys in Ireland and closing small schools may result in increased journey times for some. Such factors should be considered when determining the future of schools with low pupil numbers.
PROPOSAL: Add an additional objective in section 6.3.5, Children and young people: “In order to advance the interests of young people living in Kerry, who often do not have a voice in planning and development decisions within the County, and in order to ensure that the development in the county will not result in younger generations having to bear the burden of unsustainable development, Kerry County Council will ensure that young people have a platform to participate in the development of the county, for example through a Kerry Youth Forum facilitated by the council or through enhanced outreach to young people in consultations on significant development projects in the county.”
RATIONALE: It is not acceptable that the KCDP plan does not contain any measures to take the voices of young people in the county into account in development decision generally. Under section 6.3.5, Children and Young People, there is only one objective, namely, to “work with the relevant agencies and authorities to advance the physical, social, and cultural needs of children and young people”. The physical, social, and cultural needs of children and young people cannot be fully met by only working with ‘relevant agencies and authorities’ and not working with young people directly. In the time of the climate and biodiversity emergencies, it is critical that young people’s voices are hard, as it is young people and future generations that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Kerry County Council should do its utmost to ensure that young people do not have to shoulder the burdens of decisions made by older generations without regard for the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
As stated above, in Volume One, the words ‘young’ and ‘youth’ are mentioned only 20 times between them, on 11 pages, mostly in passing. Of the significant references:
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There is one reference to the provisioning of services to young people and children.
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There is one reference to working with relevant agencies and authorities to advance the physical, social, and cultural needs of children and young people.
The above references to young people are not sufficient. The decisions that are made on the back of this development plan will affect younger generations far more than older generations, and young people should be given a more deserving place in the development plan than they have been given so far.
Most ironically, while the KCDP quotes the fact that Our Rural Future has a policy to ‘Actively involve young people in rural areas in decisions that affect them and their future,’ there is nowhere in the KCDP that refers to this. Nowhere in the KCDP are young people’s voice considered. The KCDP as it stands does not reflect the Our Rural Future document in this respect, though it claims to do so. If the above goal is not added, and if objectives are not added to take young people’s voices into account, then the reference to Our Rural Future should be removed, as the KCDP would not in such a case be in line with Our Rural Future.