Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the Galway city outer bypass. Yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, stated publicly that this ring-road cannot proceed because we would be breaking laws. This comes on foot of a fresh review that is going to be done by An Bord Pleanála. For the people of Galway, there is much confusion concerning what is going on. What is the Government's policy and what are we doing in Galway city? We have businesspeople who have been advocating for this project for the last ten to 15 years. We have probably spent €25 million to €30 million on doing planning permissions. These have failed, gone to Europe or whatever. We have then started off again. We have land that has been frozen for the last eight to ten years and houses that cannot be sold because they are on this preferred route for a road. We have people travelling into and out of work stuck for maybe 90 minutes each way on a small section to get into the city from the east and south of the county.

We have uncertain development regarding the city, which is the engine for the region to develop. I will give the Tánaiste one small example. We need to put in a new fire station in Galway city but we cannot decide on what site we are going to put it on until we decide on the outer bypass. Yesterday, I think the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, said that this cannot go ahead and cannot proceed. What is happening is that people are wondering what the Government's policy is here. Are we building an outer bypass, are we doing something else or are we doing nothing at all? This is in the national development plan as a project to be done and it is part of the programme for Government. The people of Galway and the region, though, deserve better than just a flippant announcement yesterday that this project cannot proceed, while at same time An Bord Pleanála is going to review the application again. Is this announcement pre-empting its decision?

What is the Government's policy regarding this outer ring road? We have been told the climate action laws must be adhered to and that we cannot break them. Will somebody tell me if we are breaking laws right now by proposing to undertake this outer ring road? Should we be up-front with people and tell them what we are going to do? We had talk about a light rail system for Galway city. We have also had talk about other things for Galway city and all we have are reports upon reports upon studies. We do not even have one park-and-ride facility in Galway city now. Going back to the time of the former Deputy, Noel Dempsey, when he was the Minister for Transport he opened a section of a bus lane in 2007 in Claregalway. The second section of this bus lane has not yet been done. We do not need to acquire land for this endeavour, it is just tied up in paper.

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