John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

It is opportune that the Minister is in the seat. Successive Governments have committed to building the Galway city ring road. In October 2023, which is over two years ago now, the Galway roads project office resubmitted the planning application to An Bord Pleanála. That followed a three-and-a-half year assessment process by An Bord Pleanála, which unfortunately failed in the judicial review process. There has been over six years of an assessment process for a piece of infrastructure that is badly needed while in Galway there is traffic chaos on a daily basis. I know the Minister is aware of it but the concern is that there is no certainty over when we might get a decision on this. I was in the Chamber earlier in the summer when the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, gave a response to Deputy McAuliffe with a date that An Coimisiún Pleanála had prescribed for the Luas extension to Finglas.

The people of Galway deserve similar certainty. We deserve to know when this decision will be made. There is another impact because the NTA will not devise our new transport strategy until we get the decision. I know we cannot engage in planning decisions, but can we get certainty on when the decision will be made?

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