News
New halting site in the pipeline for Travellers
A new halting site and houses for Travellers will be built in the city within the next two years, Galway City Council is proposing.
The local authority’s Traveller Accommodation Plan identifies sites in Ballybane, Doughiska and Knocknacarra to meet the needs of the city’s Traveller population.
The plan wasn’t discussed as planned at last week’s Council meeting, but a local senator and General Election candidate issued a statement which forced the issue of Traveller accommodation onto the political agenda.
Independent Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has questioned the logic of spending €11 million on one of the sites earmarked for Traveller housing.
The Traveller accommodation issue came to prominence again in recent weeks when several families moved to an unauthorised site in Knocknacarra, before camping outside City Hall and now to Ballyloughane Beach in Renmore.
The families, including about 15 adults and 20 children, brought their caravan cavalcade to Millar’s Lane following their eviction from outside the Barna Waste facility on the Headford Road on January 22.
In a briefing circulated to councillors, Director of Services, Tom Connell said the housing needs of the families would be addressed through homeless services.
“The families concerned have relatively recently come onto the housing waiting list . . . the City Council will continue to seek and find suitable accommodation for the families through the current social housing measures that are available.
“It should be noted that there are existing members of the Travelling community who have been on the Council’s waiting list for a considerable period and there must be fairness and equality in addressing and meeting their needs and in respecting their position on the waiting list. There is no one solution to deal with the housing needs of the Travelling community. It will require an integrated approach with a variety of housing measures and this will require time to deliver,” said Mr Connell.
He outlined plans for the development of a six or eight bay halting site at land recently acquired by the Council at Ballybane will be advanced.
He said the Council will also prepare and advance plans for a mix of social and voluntary houses along with Traveller-specific accommodation on the Doughiska Road, opposite the existing halting site.
Mr Connell said an objective of the Council’s is the development of a “Traveller-specific group housing scheme” on land it owns at Keeraun on the Ballymoneen Road. Existing halting sites will also be refurbished, he said.
The fresh plans for the Knocknacarra site have drawn the ire of Senator Healy Eames who has questioned the Council’s competence to deliver value for money for taxpayers, and a “fair outcome” to the 4,500 households on the city’s housing waiting list.
She said the Keeraun site was purchased by the Council in 2008 for €11 million, which equates to €1.4 million per acre.
“A portion of the land can’t be developed at all because of its environmental status and the proposed route of the city bypass cuts through this land, which means only between 10 and 13 houses can be developed at this site,” she said.
Senator Healy Eames it was a “laudable purpose” to purchase the land but the emerging picture is that if the site is developed, each of the new homes will cost “in excess of €1 million each”.
This would be a “flagrant abuse of taxpayers’ money and very poor planning”.
She has called on the City Council to clarify the price paid for the land, whether it is in a Special Area of Conservation and whether the bypass will cut through it.
“We need answers now in fairness to the ratepayers and taxpayers who paid for it,” she added.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
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.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
