TDs unite in drive to save bypass

Date Published: 19-Dec-2008

FOUR of the five Galway West Dáil Deputies have put their party allegiances to one side and joined forces to ‘resurrect’ the Galway City Outer Bypass in the hope that the recent An Bord Pleanála decision doesn’t scupper the project entirely.

Minister Éamon Ó Cuív (FF) and Deputies Frank Fahey (FF), Noel Grealish (IND) and Pádraic McCormack (FG) – in a cross-party show of solidarity in support of the Bypass – held a crisis meeting in the Dáil this week and issued a joint statement pledging to continue to work to ensure the road as envisaged is completed.

Last month the planning appeals board gave the go ahead for a fifth bridge over the Corrib and 15km of roadway east of the river between Garraun in Oranmore and Gort an tSleibhe (near Bushypark) but refused permission for the 6km stretch from Gort an tSleibhe to An Baile Nua (between Barna and Furbo).

The Government confirmed also that funding for the €340 million project had been pulled due to the severe deterioration in the State’s finances.

The four TDs are now pressing for a meeting with the National Roads Authority and …