Ring Road is off down yet another legal route

An application by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) to take a Judicial Review of the decision to grant permission to build the N6 Galway City Ring Road was granted last week – bringing the number of legal actions now pending to three.

At a High Court sitting last Monday, Justice Richard Humphreys approved the JR application – and put a stay on any further works on the project.

He also allowed FIE an additional Junior Counsel because of the ‘voluminous’ nature of the documentation.

The High Court had already granted a Judicial Review to Galway Race Committee.

The third challenger to the ring road is Brooks Timber & Building Supplies Limited.

Justice Humphreys said the building supplies company could proceed with its challenge of the planning permission.

At a hearing last week, FIE indicated its intention to seek a Judicial Review, and permission was formally granted this week.

The new ring road was applied for in 2018 and granted permission by An Bord Pleanála last December.

Galway County Council estimates the road will take three years to construct at a cost of at least €600 million and would involve a number of tunnels, as well as a viaduct over the River Corrib, a designated European nature conservation site.

Friends of the Irish Environment said it was taking the review because An Bórd Pleanála failed to comply with, “the very significantly enhanced emissions reduction ambition adopted by the Government in climate change legislation last year as well as the Habitats Directive”.

FIE told the High Court that An Bord Pleanála failed to act consistent with Ireland’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions as set out in the Climate & Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 and the Climate Action Plan 2021, and clear commitments in national policy to invest heavily in modal shift away from roads and private cars, and towards public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure.

“The answer to Galway traffic problems lie in proven measures, such as better public transport and the ongoing push for pedestrianisation and bicycles lanes – not in more and bigger roads,” Helena Murphy of FIE said.

“This project totally flies in the face of all of our environmental targets and undermines our compliance with the Habitats Directive as well as our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Developing roads in a climate crisis is just irrational, no matter how much one seeks to greenwash it.

“We need to heavily invest in encouraging and enabling safe cycling, efficient public transport, not more roads bringing ever more traffic and more sprawl that will lock-in more emissions.

“This project, which is acknowledged by An Bord Pleanála to lead to an increase in emissions which cannot be fully mitigated, is contrary to Ireland’s climate commitments under Irish and European law, as well as the 2015 Paris Agreement. An Bord Pleanála hasn’t yet looked up to see the climate catastrophe hurtling towards us,” she said.

Other grounds in the challenge include Ireland’s, “failure to set site specific conservation objectives of European nature conservation sites”, and failure to comply with European climate change regulations.

It could be May at the earliest before the reviews are heard due to a backlog of cases.