Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Baineann mo cheist le mo chathair féin, cathair álainn dhátheangach ar imeall na Gaeltachta is mó sa tír ach cathair atá ag déileáil le fadhbanna ollmhóra, an ghéarchéim tithíochta agus géarchéim na dtranglam tráchta san áireamh. Eascraíonn na fadhbanna sin go díreach as polasaí na comhairle cathrach agus polasaí an Rialtais. Táimid tagtha go dtí am na cinniúna. Tá ceist le cur agus freagra ag teastáil. Cá bhfuil ár dtriail mar chathair i gcomhthéacs na ndualgas atá orainn maidir le hathrú aeráide?

As the Minister will have grasped, my question relates to Galway city, which is naturally beautiful. It is a bilingual city and a gateway to the biggest Gaeltacht in the country. It is a city that is struggling with serious problems. It is choked with traffic and faces a serious housing crisis. I have raised this issue before and have received no replies. I have repeatedly brought it to the attention of each Government since 2016 that there are solutions to this problem.

I sat on a local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put park and ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis. A report from the Land Development Agency, LDA, stated that two-thirds of the land identified by the LDA in Galway is in category 3, with significant problems. Part of it is in Merlin Park University Hospital which will never be used for housing.

Recently, a conference was held, Reimagining the Irish City, hosted by the O'Reilly Institute, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, the Academy of Urbanism and Galway City Council. I praised it, but it is significant that it was not an inclusive conference. I understand the tickets cost a couple of hundred euro in order to attend it in St. Nicholas's church. It should have been held in a city council building, led by the city council, but there was a complete absence of vision and leadership.

Before the Minister comes back to me tells me this is a local authority issue, I wish to state this is an issue for the Government in regard to our climate obligations and building a sustainable city. My preference would be public transport with light rail, but there are many solutions. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated. I present this as someone who is very proud of my city, i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla, ach tá gá le réitigh inmharthana.

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