Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

I think it is a false argument about the need for an outer bypass or not. This is about sustainable solutions and transformative action. Let us go back to why the An Bord Pleanála decision was quashed. There was an agreement to quash the decision because it had failed to consider the climate action plan. Imagine that it had failed to do that. What I am trying to get at here is because we put all our eggs in one basket, regardless of one’s view, let An Coimisiún Pleanála make its decision and let that go into operation one way or another. My difficulty is that this beautiful city has failed to roll out park-and-ride facilities 20 solid years after we put them in the development plan. We have failed to maximise school transport to lift the traffic off the road. We have failed to act on a feasibility study. It took us too long to do the feasibility study and now the Minister is telling me the feasibility study has gone into the future depending on a decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála. I do not think that is a transformative action. I think that is the same old thinking. I understand the Minister’s dilemma and what he is saying but that same dilemma has been put forward for 25 solid years where we are told we have to wait for the road. In the meantime, we let the traffic build up out of all proportion. The Department’s own report is telling us that it will be choked with traffic in the future again. A wise government would ask what transformative action is and how to lift the traffic off the road. The An Coimisiún Pleanála process could go on for years more. This issue has been ongoing since I became a councillor in 1999. The practical solutions have never been taken. I am asking the Minister how he can stand over a city that has failed to roll out the most basic solution to traffic congestion - park and ride - on the western side of the city and progress light rail?

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