Taoiseach 'hopeful' Galway ring road will be granted permission next year

An artist impression of part of the Galway City Ring Road proposal. Leo Varadkar said he believed that the proposed Galway city outer ring road would not contravene the Government’s climate action targets. File picture

Commuters in Galway city face many more years of daily gridlock with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar reluctant to put a timeline on when the misery might be eased by the construction of a ring road.

The plan to build a ring road has been dogged by controversy and objections for the past few decades and while Mr Varadkar hopes planning permission might be granted next year, he fears that it will be held up by further legal objections.

“I would be afraid to do so given the history of the project,” said Mr Varadkar when asked to give a timeline when the Galway city outer bypass might be completed.

He was speaking at the official opening of a new €35m bypass of the village of Moycullen about 12 kilometres west of Galway city. That plan, the first bypass of a town or village in Connemara, was granted planning permission in 2012 and it had been hoped it would be built at the same time as the Galway outer ring road.

“When we were pushing the green light on this particular project here in Moycullen about 10 years ago, we had hoped that we would be able to build the ring road at the same time. That wasn’t possible because it got stuck in planning issues and now it is back in before An Bord Pleanála.

So, I would be hopeful that we can have permission granted next year. 

"There is then always the possibility of a judicial review in the courts, that’s why everyone has to be very careful about making the decision and making sure that it is the correct one and that it will stand up in court.

“And if it does go to court then the next step is tender and then construction, so I don’t want to put a definite timeline on it because I’m not in control of those timelines. But that is what I would hope to see as a timeline, permission granted next year, if there is a judicial review a decision made on that quite quickly,” he said.

The 4.3km bypass of Moycullen, a commuter village where the population has increased by over 33% from the 2016 census to 2,279 last year, also went through a lengthy planning process.

Mr Varadkar said he believed that the proposed Galway city outer ring road would not contravene the Government’s climate action targets.

“There is a major development happening this week, the new Planning and Environment division of the High Court meets for the first time and that will enable cases relating to planning and the environment to be heard more quickly,” added Mr Varadkar.

“And once it is through those processes then it can go to construction, but I’m a strong believer that it is compliant with the Climate Action Plan.

I know there are different views on that but if you think about it, building the ring road will free up the city in so many different ways for pedestrians, for cyclists, for being able to use road space much more efficiently for people. 

"By the time the project is fully constructed and open to traffic, by then we anticipate 80% of electricity will be driven by renewables, including some off the west coast here in Galway and we see the explosion in the number of electric cars, so I think that has to be taken into account when any planning decision is made.” 

The new Moycullen bypass, which runs north of the village between Moycullen and Lough Corrib, is accessed by roundabouts at Clydagh and Drimcong and it was opened to the public for the first time at 3pm on Monday afternoon.