CITY TRIBUNE
Galway TDs and senators declare property interests
Galway East TD and former Minister of State Seán Canney owns six residential properties in Galway and Tuam, which are rented out, according to the newly-published Dáil Register of Members’ Interests for 2020.
The Independent TD, who was a director with the JJ Rhatigan construction firm for more than two decades, also owns a share of a retail property for the purposes of renting.
Under the law, each year, all members of the Oireachtas much declare their occupations and any directorships they hold, properties and shares they own and any gifts they receive.
In the filings for Galway TDs, Deputy Canney told the Clerk of the Dáil that he owns a house in the Village, Wellpark in Galway, which is rented out, as well as two houses at The Mall in Tuam and three apartments at St Jarlath’s Place, Bishop Street in Tuam. He is also a partner in The Galway Partnership, along with Sean Rhatigan and Gerry Kelly of JJ Rhatigan & Co, which owns a retail property for the purposes of renting.
His Galway East colleague, Fine Gael’s Ciarán Cannon – also a former Minister of State – is part-owner of holiday home in the small village of Banyuls-dels-Aspres in the Languedoc-Rousillon region of the south of France.
Deputy Cannon is also listed as an executive director of Gate Lodge Properties Ltd in Carrabane, Athenry (which operates the Gate Lodge pub and Village theatre) and the voluntary Carrabane Community Development Company Ltd.
Fellow constituency TD, Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fáil), has not listed any occupation, shares or land on the register.
In Galway West, the Register of Interests, Independent Deputy Noel Grealish declared rental income from a house in Claregalway and an apartment in Dublin.
Minister of State at the Dept of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton (FG), listed her occupation as a teacher at St Pat’s National School in Galway from where she is on a leave of absence. She also sings in a voluntary capacity with the Bel Canto group.
Catherine Connolly (Ind) has declared her family home in the Claddagh in Galway, while Éamon Ó Cuív (FF) and Mairéad Farrell (SF) listed no occupations, shares, directorships or land.
In the Roscommon-Galway constituency, Michael Fitzmaurice from Williamstown has listed his occupation as an agricultural contractor involved in plant hire, turf cutting, farming and civil engineering.
He has one share worth one euro in the Kilcolm Co-op Water Scheme (a voluntary group water scheme where he also serves as chairman) and is Chair of the Turf Cutters and Contractors’ Association voluntary representative group.
The declaration noted that Deputy Fitzmaurice received no payment for the chairmanships and he holds no directorships, only voluntary committee positions.
He owns farm land at Strangeforth, Keelogues and Curragh in Williamstown, and all are rural farmland.
Independent TD Denis Naughten, the former Minister for Communications, declared a one-acre site at Drum in Roscommon which is farmland.
Sinn Féin’s Claire Kerrane listed no occupation, land, shares, directorships or gifts.
The only other TD who declared interests which were in Galway was Johnny Guirke (Sinn Féin, Meath West), who owns a rental property at Cois na hAbhainn in Tuam.
On the Register of Members’ Interests for the Seanad, Sean Kyne (FG) has declared land at Clydagh in Moycullen which is farmed by his uncle and from which there is no income, and a rental property in Athlone which is owned by his wife.
Pauline O’Reilly (Green Party) had declared herself as a board member of NUI Galway and Leisureland in Salthill, as well as the not-for-profit organisation Galway Community Circus.
Aisling Dolan (FG) from Ballinasloe, declared that she was a project manager at NUI Galway before her Seanad nomination.
Senator Ollie Crowe (FF) from Bohermore in the city; Gerard Craughwell (Ind), who is originally from Salthill and Alice-Mary Higgins from the city, have not listed any properties, shares or land.
Senator Rónán Mullen (Human Dignity Alliance), who is originally from Ahascragh, is a lecturer with the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown – from where he has been on a career break since 2015 – and is also in receipt of rental income.
According to the Register of Interests, he owns farmland in Aughrim and also owns has mortgaged houses at Newtown Court in Maynooth, Co Kildare and Claremont Drive in Glasnevin, Dublin. He is co-owner of a mortgaged house in Roscommon town.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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