Seanad debates
Thursday, 17 November 2022
An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
10:30 am
Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source
I rise to talk about Galway and transport. We all know the difficulties in getting a ring road after 20 years of Galway City Council and Galway County Council trying to push this through. We also know we have different opinions on it among the Senators from Galway. It is beyond time for Galway City Council and Galway County Council to look at an alternative because too many hopes have been pinned on this road and it was unfair to the people of Galway to keep them on this promise for the last 20 years.
Light rail is something I feel passionate about for Galway. We have an ideal opportunity and we have it in the programme for Government that we would do a feasibility study on light rail, which has been planned for next year. Along with light rail, let us push forward with BusConnects and get active cycling and pedestrian ways across the city, particularly to alleviate some of the congestion problems. I live in the west of the city and I know about those congestion problems like everybody else. If we can move people from their cars onto public transport and active transport that is the best way to deal with the congestion. The ring road was not going to see any movement from people out of their cars and onto buses and bicycles. The statistics that were presented by the group that was looking at advancing the ring road showed as much. I look forward to the Acting Leader's response.
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