Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh for organising the meeting. It is crucially important that we have this debate. Galway is suffering on two fronts. It is losing business and shoppers. People are no longer going into the city to do their shopping. With the opening of the new motorway, they are going further afield. No doubt, Galway Bay FM will cover this meeting, featuring soundbites from it, to which those stuck in traffic this evening in Galway will listen. All they want to know are the short-term solutions and timeframes in which the works will be done.

I work in Parkmore and receive calls from people concerning traffic congestion around it. Yesterday morning, for example, it took 37 minutes to get from the Ballintemple junction to the traffic lights before the business park. The traffic is so bad I have to leave home at 7 a.m. to get into my office for 8 a.m.. Why does it take so long to get from planning to the actual works commencing? Will Mr. Brendan McGrath and Mr. Uinsinn Finn give us a firm timeframe for when the work will be completed and people will be able to get in and out of Parkmore at a reasonable time?

We will not go back over the horror stories about it taking three hours to get half a mile down the road. We all know that a happy worker is a productive worker. A worker who gets stuck in traffic and spends the first 15 minutes in work giving out about how long his or her commute took is not a happy one. I know Mr. Tony Neary who has a multinational business to run and Mr. Brian Coll do not want to be here discussing this issue.

On some occasions at the traffic lights at Briarhill I have seen one road clear with no traffic, but it still has a green light. I was recently stuck at the Carnmore junction going into Galway on a red light. The traffic lights for the road in front with no traffic had a green light, but I had to wait. I timed it and it took one minute and ten seconds for it to change. The volume of traffic which could have moved in that time would have been phenomenal. I know that Mr. Michael Timmins worked on it at the time with Mr. Fran McEvoy. The traffic lights at Carnmore crossroads are smart traffic lights and controlled by pads on the road. At Carnmore Cross, coming from Monivea Road, if there is no traffic coming from town, the light will not go green but will switch to another. It can control the traffic. It would be a huge help if smart traffic lights could be installed at Briarhill. There is a state-of-the-art traffic control room in Galway City Council, but, unfortunately, it is not manned. If there are backlogs in particular areas, why can the lights not be synchronised to move traffic?

Is funding a hold-up in having projects approved for Galway City Council? Is the council actually waiting for approval from the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland or the Department to move projects forward? If it is the case, what projects are being held up by requiring approval or funding?

Members said all of the eggs were in the one basket, namely, the ring road. I could be dead and buried before it is built. It was said by some delegates that parts of the Galway city outer ring road project would solve the problem at Parkmore. I have looked at the ring road proposal and there are sections of back roads. Why can they not be built now? Why can we not go ahead with those sections and get traffic onto the Tuam Toad, instead of waiting for the whole picture of the Galway inner ring road to be presented? Why cannot it be done in stages? Can Galway County Council examine developing various stages of it now? If permission for the ring road is refused, will all of the proposed new roads to service Parkmore and other parts of the city be thrown out of the pram with the toys? We need to look at building the road in stages.

I have tabled parliamentary questions about park and ride facilities, as well as raising the issue in the Dáil. I have discussed with the city manager and Mr. Uinsinn Finn why the Galway Airport site is not used for this facility. The NTA claimed that it was too far out. When it was tried before, nobody used it. Why did nobody use it? It was because the park and ride bus service was also stuck in traffic. Who will use such a facility if the bus service is going to be stuck in traffic? The answer is nobody. The only way a park and ride facilitiy will work is if buses actually pass through every 15 minutes.

There was a proposal to locate the park and ride facility in Doughiska on residentially zoned land. We are crying out for homes to be built for people in Galway, but there is a proposal to locate a park and ride facility in Doughiska which is practically in the city and one mile from Parkmore. That is a crazy proposal. We should look at situating it at Galway Airport, particularly when one considers the number of people coming from the east side of the city. There is Junction 19 on the M6 and the Rathmorrissy intersection. In two turns, one is at Galway Airport where there are 125 acres of land. A proper bus corridor from the site could solve many problems at Parkmore. Will Ms Anne Graham explain why the Galway Airport site has been dismissed? I want a feasibility study to be carried. One does locate a park and ride facility in the middle of a city.

What discussions has Galway County Council had with IDA Ireland on providing infrastructure in the county? I tabled a parliamentary question yesterday on the available lands in the IDA Ireland portfolio in Galway. Tuam Business Park has 1.47 ha of land, Ballinasloe Business and Technology Park has 8.8 ha of land; Tuam Science and Technology Park has 9.92 ha of land; Parkmore Business and Technology Park has 26.75 ha of land; Oranmore Science and Technology Park has 26.78 ha of land; while in Athenry there is 92.43 ha of land available. Why is IDA Ireland not locating industries at these locations? Why do we have to bring everybody into the city? There are motorways between Tuam, Ballinasloe, Gort and Shannon, while there is a huge intersection at Rathmorrissy which services Oranmore and Athenry. In the United States and elsewhere in Europe there is forward planning. Why is Galway suffering? This issue dates back many moons to the delegates’ predecessors when there was no forward planning. Parkmore was developed 35 years ago, but there is the same road in and out of the business park. Why were roads not planned to come out onto the Tuam Road or the Monivea Road? We are suffering owing to lack of forward planning.

We should pick IDA Ireland sites at Oranmore and Athenry and provide the roads infrastructure. Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh should ask Mr. Martin Shanahan to address the committee on what IDA Ireland is doing to solve the traffic problems in Galway. A number of units were built at Parkmore by public private partnerships for leasing to IDA Ireland which then aimed to bring in industry, but it could not get people to come there. Therefore, why is it still building there? We have lost industry to Limerick. Over 600 jobs were supposed to come to Galway but did not on account of the traffic problems. I received a telephone call from the managing director of a factory in Galway. The top person had flown in from the United States, but he was stuck in traffic and late for a meeting. He had to get a Garda escort to get him there on time. We have to work on the issue of forward planning. I ask Mr. Finn and Mr. McGrath to tell people who will be listening to this debate in their cars this evening when there will be progress at Parkmore and in other parts of the city. It is frustrating for the and Galway is suffering. This will continue to be the case until we see progress.