Deputy Mayor of Kerry County Council Michael Cahill has expressed his “joy” at the decision of the High Court to rule in favour of the South Kerry Greenway.

The councillor said that this project has “huge potential not just for south Kerry, but all of Co. Kerry and beyond”.

“We hope that this can finally, finally be the green light to commence the physical project, when everybody can be proud of their input to a dream initiative for south Kerry,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said.

“11 years have already gone by since this project was first mooted by the South Kerry Development Partnership [SKDP] and many other greenways are long up and running in the interim and are prospering.

“Hopefully now we can see work commencing on the South Kerry Greenway, which as I’ve said many times will be a game-changer and a lifeline for our children, and our children’s children, and for many generations to come.

“The South Greenway is the single biggest tourism project ever for our county and I predict that when developed, [it] will surpass one million visitors per annum to our county within a very short period of time,” the councillor concluded.

Minister Norma Foley also welcomed the news, saying that it is an “enormous step forward”.

Deputy Brendan Griffin described it as “another big step” as he brought Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to the site “in follow up to my call in the Dáil for funding to build the greenway when planning is completed”.

“We’ll keep at it,” he added.

The High Court is upholding its previous decision of allowing planning permission for the greenway.

The near 30km greenway- first put forward in 2011 – is proposed to mainly be constructed along the route of the Southern and Western Railway, which has not been in use for decades