We must get speedy ruling from Europe on Bypass, says Walsh

Date Published: {J}

Following more than a week of traffic gridlock in Galway – in which cross-city journeys were taking well over an hour – TD Brian Walsh has called for a speedy ruling from Europe on a legal question which is crucial to the city’s proposed Outer Bypass.

The part of the Outer Bypass which was given planning permission would stretch from the new Galway-Dublin motorway, to the River Corrib (on the Moycullen side of Glenlo Abbey), but the approval was appealed to the Irish High Court and then the Supreme Court.

At the centre of the legal wrangle is the issue of intrusion into environmental habitat which is protected by European directive, but the Outer Bypass is seen as a vital piece of infrastructure which would take tens of thousands of cars per day off city roads, because they would have no need to travel through the city.

Part two of the Outer Bypass from the Corrib (near Glenlo) to close to Barna village was refused on environmental grounds and the search for a possible alternative route is going on.

Deputy Walsh (Fine Gael) said the city traffic situation was ‘balanced on a knife-edge’ so that road works, or even a crash near a vital junction, were capable of leading to the kind of chaos which the city experienced in the past week.

Said Deputy Walsh, a former Mayor of Galway: "The traffic problems that city commuters experienced last week served to highlight the need for infrastructure to provide a solution to the problem.

"I am disappointed that it has taken the Supreme Court so long to refer the matter to the ECJ (European Court of Justice) for a preliminary ruling and it is vital that a decision comes back from Europe sooner rather than later so the whole matter can be progressed.

"The Galway City Outer Bypass has been in the pipeline for around 14 years but there hasn’t been the political will to bring it to fruition. If there was, it would have become a reality by now. The Bypass has been used as a political football for too long and election candidates have been elected on the basis of rhetoric rather than action. We need to stop playing games and ensure that everything that has to be done is done to make this happen."

When the Planning Appeals Board in 2008 gave permission for the eastern section of the Outer Bypass it found that the Outer Bypass was an essential component for the city transport network.

It said that while having a severe localised impact on the Lough Corrib Special Area of Conservation, it would not adversely affect the integrity of this area. “The development hereby approved would not, therefore, have unacceptable effects on the environment and would therefore be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.