The Government has been urged to give the long-awaited green light required to develop the former Pretty Polly plant in Killarney as a training college for the tourism and hospitality sector.
Kerry Fianna Fáil general election candidate, Linda Gordon Kelleher, said in November 2022, the then Minister for Further and Higher Education and now Taoiseach, Simon Harris, told the Dáil that an official proposal from the Kerry Education Training Board had been received.
“Close on two years on, however, nothing has happened on the ground and frustration is mounting in a town that has been neglected and under-funded and badly needs a boost,” Ms Gordon Kelleher said.
“It simply not acceptable that a ministerial decision on the matter is still awaited. The site is there, the tourism industry goodwill is there but it would appear the political will to get this over the line is lacking,” she said.
Ms Gordon Kelleher has urged the current Minister for Further and Higher Education, Patrick O’Donovan, to sign off on the college of further education project as a matter of immediate priority to give Killarney and Kerry the boost it needs approaching the winter months.
She said the transformation of the former Pretty Polly site into a third level institution and a Centre of Excellence in Hospitality would be a significant boost for the town as it has been stated that more than 3,000 students would be welcomed in the first year and that number would increase in the following years.
“When I was growing up in Killarney my father was the centre director with CERT when the training facility was based in the old Torc Great Southern Hotel.
“That wonderful facility trained hundreds of people for the tourism and hospitality industry every year and it’s appropriate that similar apprenticeships and training opportunities would again be available in the premier tourist town in the country,” Ms Gordon Kelleher stated.
She said the former Pretty Polly has been derelict and decaying for far too long and it’s high time it should be transformed into a busy student campus.
“It’s one thing for ministers and TDs to visit the site and pose for photographs but now they must deliver. Killarney must no longer be left behind,” Ms Gordon Kelleher said.
KillarneyToday.com: Reach thousands of readers every day. To advertise call 064-6631281 or 087-2229761
