Compensation secured for South Kerry Greenway landowners
An alternative compensation arrangement for South Kerry Greenway landowners has been described as a "significant breakthrough".
Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry, Michael Cahill, confirmed in a statement that the project was being included in a new Voluntary Acquisition Support Payment (VASP) scheme.
Deputy Cahill said he had formally raised "the need for an alternative compensation arrangement for the South Kerry Greenway landowners who were excluded from the existing early sign-on payment arrangements".
"[This] puts the landowner at the very heart of the project, and I stated in the past, there would be no Greenway without the landowners."
“I have never accepted that landowners involved in the South Kerry Greenway should be disadvantaged simply because of the timing of statutory approvals and the particular circumstances surrounding this project," Deputy Cahill said.
Agriland previously reported that work by the Kerry County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) were underway on the 27km greenway from Glenbeigh to Cahersiveen, which was first proposed in 2011.
An Bord Pleanála gave the project the green light in November 2020, along with an accompanying compulsory purchase order for the land required.
Under the new VASP, the South Kerry Greenway landowners "will be eligible for a payment calculated using the same Greenway band length methodology and rates as the existing early sign-on payment", Deputy Cahill said.
"Importantly, the arrangement will apply retrospectively to qualifying projects where a notice to treat [was] issued after 1 January 2022."
There will, however, be a number of conditions for these payments, including:
- Meaningful engagement in negotiations with the local authority valuers;
- Agreement on compensation without recourse to arbitration;
- The conclusion and execution of a land acquisition agreement by both parties, subject to satisfactory title checks.
Deputy Cahill explained that the scheme was specifically intended to "assist landowners who do not qualify for the existing early sign-on payment because statutory consent had been secured before January 1 2022".
Claims under the new arrangement must be concluded by the end of 2028.
