Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am reluctant to blame a planning system that successive Governments have run down completely. We were in Mayo last week where planning vacancies were pointed out so I am not going down that route. I place the responsibility firmly on the Government.

I cannot describe the frustration. The traffic in Galway has been like this for years. In my opinion, it has been allowed to be left like that because of policy decisions. I know the Minister agrees with me on this. Policy decisions have ensure that no serious action was taken regarding traffic congestion in Galway. It involves the creative extension of school transport, at the very least a feasibility study of light rail and the urgent roll-out of park and ride. It is unacceptable that the Barna site has now gone into a long-term plan. This should all have been done when we identified it almost 20 years ago and said it was urgent that we rolled out different solutions to the traffic congestion in Galway. I ask for the Minister's support on this so that we do something really creative, urgent and serious about traffic congestion in Galway.

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