News
Residents appeal Apple data centre plans
Residents living near the proposed new Apple building in Athenry have appealed the decision to grant planning for the data centre at a Greenfield site.
The objectors cite traffic concerns, as well as the impact on badgers and bats, as reasons to halt the €850 million investment.
Galway County Council a fortnight ago gave the go-ahead to the multi-national giant to build a 30,000 square metres development at forest land owned by Coillte near Derrydonnell that will house its new data centre. The IDA has hailed the €850 million investment in Athenry as one of the biggest foreign direct investments (FDI) in the history of the state.
As well as construction jobs, the company has indicated it will employ 300 people once the plant is up and running. It had hoped to build the centre by 2017.
But residents have this week lodged an appeal to An Bórd Pleanála against the decision.
Noel and Patricia Heneghan Kelly of Toberroe and Mary Lindsay of Toberroe have both lodged appeals to the planning appeals board.
They objected to the development due to increased traffic and noise associated with construction traffic. They feared for the impact the development will have on a nearby private well, which is a source of water to nearby homes. The appellants also claimed there will be significant impacts on bats and badgers, which are protected species, living in the forest.
The planning appeals board will deliberate on the objections and issue its judgement by February of 2016.
Galway County Councillor Peter Feeney (FG) said everyone is entitled to object and he could understand why people living near it might be concerned. However, the Athenry area councillor said that Apple had addressed all of the concerns raised by residents, including traffic concerns, when it submitted additional information to the local authority during the planning application process.
He said that traffic along that road used to be far worse before the M6 motorway was built than what it will be like once Apple’s plant is finished.
“Once this building is built, you won’t be able to see it, you won’t be able to hear it, you won’t be able to smell it. It is on a 500 acres site of forest and it is hollowing out the middle of the forest and you won’t even know it is there,” he said.
Cllr Feeney said the vast majority of people in Athenry and County Galway welcomed the investment with open arms. It is building on the cluster of technology and pharmaceuticals companies that have set up in Galway City, and wil create further spin-off employment.
“This is the single biggest investment in the West of Ireland ever. It is big in its own right but it will also create huge spins offs. Apple opened in Cork 35 years ago with 100 jobs, now there are over 4,000 there. This can be hugely beneficial to the entire West of Ireland. If we are serious about creating a counter-balance to Dublin and if we are serious about saving rural Ireland that this is something we all have to support,” said Cllr Feeney.
He pointed out that the plant will have an outdoor education space and high quality walking trails. “It is a most welcome investment in Athenry and I have consistently welcomed it,” added Cllr Feeney.
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
