Dublin-Galway cycle route thrown into doubt

A coast-to-coast cycleway linking Dublin to Galway has been thrown into doubt after farmers objected to the route being directed through their land.

The 280km cross-country greenway, using the Royal Canal, disused railway lines, and a new bridge over the River Shannon, was to be a flagship tourism attraction.

Several phases have already been completed, with the €4m Mullingar to Athlone section opened to great fanfare in recent weeks.

Plans to construct the western part, running through Shannonbridge, Loughrea, Craughwell, Clarinbridge, and Oranmore to the Galway coast, have been plunged into disarray.

Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe has shelved proposed work on this 145km section after objections, mainly from farmers in Galway.

Consultations with some 194 landowners — around a fifth of those along the western section — found that just under two-thirds were opposed to the cycle path.

Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe

More than a quarter were in favour of it, while less than one in 10 were undecided.

A report on the consultations handed to the minister stated that the underlying concern was that farmers don’t get any livelihood from tourism.

“The question ’what’s in it for the farmer?’ was raised in the consultations,” the Transport Infrastructure Ireland report states.

As a result of the row, Mr Donohoe has switched funding to a section of the greenway between Maynooth and Westmeath, through Kildare and Meath, which is ready to proceed.

“The goal of an iconic cross-country greenway from Dublin to Galway remains a priority for this Government, however we will now focus on completing the greenway from Maynooth to Westmeath, with a view to having that section completed in 2017,” he said.

“Funds are limited in respect of greenways, as they are in all areas, so I have come to the decision, in the interest of delivering not just the Dublin to Galway greenway but greenways throughout the country, to progress only those projects that have been properly assessed and approved and that have planning permission in place and are ready to go.”

Roscommon TD Denis Naughten said he had already indicated that the Galway-Dublin route would only be successful if it used publicly owned lands “to the maximum extent possible”.

“The fundamental problem with the routing of the greenway through Co Galway is that a different approach has been taken to the route selection on the eastern side of the Shannon, where it was determined by publicly owned lands along the canal and a disused railway,” Mr Naughten said.

Roscommon TD Denis Naughten

“Once the project crossed the Shannon the focus was on the use of private lands, rather than those already in the control of the State.”

Mr Naughten said Bord na Móna’s commencement of its withdrawal from peat extraction for energy provides further opportunities to access additional State-owned lands for the construction of the greenway.

“There are bogs controlled by Bord na Móna, which are no longer in production or that never went into production, which can assist in facilitating an agreed greenway route through Co Galway, and these need to be explored.”

Mr Naughten said. “Instead of shelving the route, and the huge work that has been completed in Co Roscommon, it’s about time that we rediscovered disused canals, abandoned famine roads and rail lines which could help to resolve the current blockage in routing the greenway between Ballinasloe and Galway.”