A catch-22 for Galway City Council on cycling!

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

One excuse often trotted out for not investing in infrastructure to encourage more cycling and walking in Galway City is lack of funding.

Then, when money isn’t the issue, and can no longer be used as cover for inaction – the Government is literally firing Euro notes at sustainable transport to placate the Greens – other excuses are cited.

One such justification that’s sometimes given for maintaining the status quo, is that there are insufficient specialist staff at City Hall to use those bags of money to draw up the necessary plans for things like the proposed Bearna Greenway.

Now, it seems, that line of response has been robbed, too.

Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly was first to announce that Government had committed to allocating up to 22 extra staff to the City Council to design walking and cycling facilities.

Will the local authority apply to get those extra workers? Perhaps they will, which would be great. Or perhaps there’ll be a new barrier put in the way of progress.

Wait for the ‘skills shortage’ and ‘we can’t source the engineers’ argument. Or maybe it’ll be the fault of Health and Safety, which can be blamed for just about anything; the mere mention of it can turn idealists’ hopes and dreams to dust.

Or how about Health and Safety’s annoying cousin, GDPR; yes, good old data protection is a bullet-proof defence for conservative public servants to do nothing.

Another favourite is the ‘we can’t build a greenway because it’ll interfere with special areas of conservation’. Remember that old chestnut? That’s a particularly devious checkmate move to thwart environmentalists’ enthusiasm for getting above their station.

If all that fails, they could always blame Covid-19 – nobody can argue against that, sure.

In fairness, some progress is being made in Galway. But until the system – ie, the politicians and management in local government – actually wants to embrace change, real change, then there will always be an excuse not to transform public transport and promote cycling and walking as viable alternatives to private cars in this city.

(Photo: Senator Pauline O’Reilly, who announced the Council’s 22 extra staff to design cycling and walking facilities).
For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.