John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle as ucht m’ábhar a roghnú le haghaidh an mhír seo ar an gclár. Mo bhuíochas freisin leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith linn chun an t-ábhar a phlé. As the Chair noted, I bring to the fore a number of issues that arise from a report published last week by the Department of Transport called The Economic Cost of Congestion in Regional Cities 2022-2040. I understand this follows a similar study that was done for the greater Dublin area last year. Some issues arise from the report that I feel warrant further reflection on future national transport policy, but I will confine much of my comment to the report as it refers to Galway. I first want to dispel an inference put forth by some since the publication of the report that it claims Galway will not benefit from the development of the proposed ring road. I want to dispel that because the report clearly says differently. Galway city ring road is currently undergoing its second assessment by An Bord Pleanála. The first assessment was accepted by An Bord Pleanála. It charged that the regulatory obligations had not been adhered to in the assessment process, which is regrettable, despite it approving the planning for the road. The Galway road project office has since furnished An Bord Pleanála with thorough further information as part of the current assessment process. I hope An Bord Pleanála will undertake the assessment carefully and prudently, but quickly. It is important for the city and the region that we get a quick decision on this. I am hopeful we will get a positive decision.

Outside of that this report highlights that the cost of congestion in Galway will reach a peak in 2030 but will fall marginally towards 2040. It will fall due to the assumption in the report that the Galway city ring road will be operational after 2030. It must also be borne in mind that the report assumes the increasing population and economic activity the city will experience in accordance with the national planning framework towards 2040. Part of what the report is saying is that the growth expected in Galway city is one of the reasons we will experience future costs associated with congestion, but the development of the ring road will alleviate that marginally. Unfortunately, and this will not be news to anybody with knowledge of Galway and its transport strategy, the ring road alone will not be sufficient to offset the increase in congestion. Further interventions are required. That is the crucial part. It would be horrific for Galway commuters to hear that not alone are our current plans not going to alleviate the traffic congestion in the city, but the traffic problems could get worse because we have an insufficiency in the interventions we are proposing. I raised the issue last week with the Tánaiste that the NTA advised me it had paused development of a new transport strategy for Galway. Since that the NTA has provided me with updated information that it is still progressing many of the projects included in the Galway transport strategy from 2016. Again, this report highlights that those interventions will not be sufficient to alleviate the traffic congestion that Galway suffers. If we cannot or do not increase the level of intervention and invest further, we will see traffic concerns in Galway unfortunately getting worse. Such interventions are not rocket science. Some of them are already alluded to in many national and local reports, such as the doubling of the rail track to Athenry, developing the western rail corridor between Tuam and Athenry, implementing the new bus network for the city at the earliest opportunity, bringing the park and ride and bus priority measures to fruition in the shortest possible timeframe and progressing a route option study for light rail in the city. A report last October highlighted that light rail is feasible for Galway, but we need to progress that to a route options assessment.

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