Minister for the Environment John Gormley has been urged to intervene to save stone boundary walls along one of the most scenic stretches of the Ring of Kerry, which are currently being replaced by "ugly" precast concrete barriers.
Derrynane resident Jean Byrne has written to Mr Gormley and to Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey complaining that works to widen the road between Sneem and Waterville are sacrificing part of Ireland's national landscape heritage.
"This is perhaps the most beautiful part of our coastline that can be viewed from a car, bus or bicycle. We sell it as one of our main tourist attractions," she said.
She urged both Ministers to give the matter their "immediate attention before it is too late". Ms Byrne agreed that this stretch of the Ring of Kerry - part of the N70 national secondary route - was a "narrow, dangerous road that needed widening". However, she said this was being done "in such a way as to destroy our stone walls".
"I have no doubt that the highest standard of road building for safety must be adhered to, but I do not accept that this precludes having stone walls. As I see it, the lazy man's option has been taken with no due regard to the aesthetic," Ms Byrne said.
She added: "There is no shortage of stone, nor of skilled stonemasons. The only thing there appears to be a shortage of is a will to do the right thing. At one point, I was told there was not the money to do it."
When the area engineer, Pádraig Teahon, told her that the cost of repairing stone walls would be in the region of hundreds of thousands of euro rather than millions, she "expressed astonishment that we would sell our souls and heritage for a mere million euro".
Kerry County Council's heritage officer, Una Cosgrave Hanley, said there was no statutory mechanism to protect stone walls or cultural landscapes and, Ms Byrne said, "I can only appeal to the relevant engineers to reinstate the wall or pin a stone wall facing to the concrete".
But Eugene O'Connor, the council's head of engineering, told Ms Byrne that it was "obliged to carry out all road improvements in accordance with national standards and specifications, having due regard for both safety and efficiency".
National Roads Authority (NRA) chief executive Fred Barry said a barrier restraint system was necessary on the seaward side of the road. "Of all possible options considered at this time, only the concrete barrier system proved feasible."
He agreed that a stone wall "would indeed look better, but unfortunately would not be adequate as a safety barrier", adding that "we will do what we can to find aesthetically acceptable solutions, and will always endeavour to find the best balanced solution".
A spokesman for the NRA said what had been adopted was "an engineering solution to the narrowness of the road", which was just 2.75m (nine feet) wide at certain points and had an average annual traffic level of about 5,000 vehicles a day.
Asked if there was any evidence of cars or buses tumbling over the cliff to justify the provision of the barriers, the spokesman said he had no figures for such accidents. "We don't want to risk the potential of a major incident," he added.
