‘Galway Ring Road families’ are prisoners in their own homes

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Taoiseach Micheál Martin acknowledged the ongoing “genuine stress and anxiety” suffered by families whose homes are earmarked for demolition as part of the N6 Galway City Ring Road project, which has suffered another legal planning setback.

Mr Martin said it was “difficult” and “not satisfactory” for the families, whose plight was highlighted in the Dáil by Galway West TD Noel Grealish.

The Independent Deputy said when the Ring Road plan was published in 2016, it proposed 54 houses be knocked or bought out to facilitate the project.

“For the past seven-and-a-half years, 54 families have been prisoners in their homes. They cannot sell their properties because who would buy a house where there is a proposal to demolish it?

“There is little point in spending money on improvements. The families were told to sit and wait for seven-and-a-half years,” Deputy Grealish said.

He said he has met with families who wish to downsize but they could not sell their homes because of the road plans.

Mr Martin replied: “The agencies involved, and all State agencies, have to be very conscious of the predicament families find themselves in when someone makes a declaration that a house will be purchased via CPO or taken over. It causes genuine stress and anxiety. It can also put people into a state of limbo for many years whereby they are not able to do anything. That is not satisfactory.”

Deputy Grealish said some €14.7m was spent on the Galway City Outer Bypass which was abandoned in 2013 after a European Court ruling. And a further €23.1m has already been spent on the Ring Road.

“This means more than €35 million has been spent so far on finding a solution that seems no closer now than it ever was. Technically, we are back to square one after 23 years,” he said.

(Image: Some of the people whose homes have been subjected to Compulsory Purchase Orders as part of the ring road plan. From left: Loretta Needham, Shron Morris, Deirdre Goggin, Marie O’Donovan (School Road), and Dr Tom Rea. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy).

This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article and three pages of coverage on the Ring Road, see the October 21 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition and support our journalism HERE.