Plunkett Street to remain traffic free

The pedestrianisation of Plunkett Street is never far away from the agenda of Killarney Municipal District council.

| By Sean Moriarty

The pedestrianisation of Plunkett Street was one of a number of measures and supports put in place as part of the Safe Streets Mobility Plan across Killarney Town during the Covid-19 Emergency Response.

The COVID-19 measures have been extended until December this year after a council vote earlier this year.

Some believe that the closure of Plunkett St to traffic is adding to Killarney’s congestion woes during the busy summer months.

Cllr Donal Grady, at this week’s Killarney Municipal District meeting called for the street to re-opened for one week to see if it would relieve some of the traffic congestion in the town centre. However, his proposal was shot down.

“Feedback from businesses in particular has been very positive, and the experience of visitors to the town has been enhanced by providing a more open and vibrant streetscape in the town,” said a council official.

“Additionally, the urban renewal town centre and street upgrade for Killarney was approved in September to proceed to planning and detailed design stage and allows for the consideration for potential inclusion of some of these measures in the wider development of the town centre.”

When prompted to provide further information to support their answers interns cited factors such as a lack of adequate breaks, unmanageable pressure, exhaustion, and a lack of safe staff-to-patient ratios across the Irish health service among the reasons for considering leaving Ireland or moving to the private healthcare sector.

INMO Student and New Graduate Officer

Roisin O’Connell said: “We simply can’t afford to be losing newly qualified nurses and midwives, but in light of the conditions they’re describing it’s not surprising so many of them want to leave.

“Final year students are looking at their qualified colleagues who are burned out and exhausted and they’re seeing how they’re treated by their employer. They see the chronic understaffing and the salary they’re expecting to receive next year and deciding it’s just not worth it.

“These are young people who joined these professions and completed their training because they love nursing and midwifery, and for many of them we’re seeing that the system has managed to take all of the joy out of their jobs before their careers have even begun.”

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Measures need to be implemented to ensure safer staffing across the health service and better supports for students and intern, or else we’re looking at a long-term skills shortage in the health service that will have a direct impact on patient care.

“The survey results here show us that student nurses and midwives need to be supported in learning environments throughout and then given early offers of employment with information from the HSE on start date and salary – the delay in this process is actually causing us to lose qualified nurses as they get the information too late and in too many cases the NHS has offers made before the Irish employer.

“The INMO continues to call for increased undergraduate places and more routes to accessing nursing and midwifery training, so we can increase the numbers of graduates. However, we also need to make working in Ireland a viable option for these graduates, or they will take their skills and their qualifications to countries that can offer them a better life and a better career.”