M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

I wouldn’t be a fan of Eamon but he is 100% right here. A new approach is needed in Galway (and that can include a new bridge over the Corrib). Everything needs to be looked at, not just saying we'll build a billion euro road first and consider other things after that.

I posted years ago in the other, now locked, thread that nothing would be done in Galway as long as they ploughed on regardless with that ridiculous Ring Road plan. Years later and they want to have the same design assessed by ABP again despite it not having been designed in accordance with one of the key assessment criteria. They want to waste further years to get told no! Eamon is right to call an end to this madness.

Delighted to hear Eamon Ryan make a definite opinion on this. It's needed one way or another.

I'm all for better road infrastructure and believe another river crossing is vital, but at this point they might actually prioritise public transport infrastructure before the road.

People like you have been predicting Eamonn Ryan’s political demise for a very long time. I think he’ll be okay.

@[Deleted User] "Though its very likely that they'll have to "retire" Brendan McGrath to see any real progress/shift in attitudes"

He's got five months left before his contract is up, I believe, and there is an active recruitment process underway for his replacement.

I think I was told by someone that the role is time limited and can't be renewed indefinitely, so there's no cloud over his departure or anything like that, just part of the normal local authority cycle.

There is no such thing as a sustainable vehicle with no emissions. That's another lie that's being peddled.

All electric cars lead back to coal, oil and gas.

Through manufacture, shipping around the world and making the electricity to power them.

Completely correct. Not alone was limerick distributor road phase one approved by bord pleanala but funding was also allocated . Since then Eamonn Ryan has eliminated the crucial phase 2 which included the River Crossing etc etc from all government plans so I wouldn't underestimate his power as transport minister.

Actually the present policy is that car journeys are to be reduced generally with a greater focuse on active travel and public transport. Moving a single person less than 10km in a 1 tonne steel box is a gross misuse of energy no matter what the source of that energy is. Electric cars are cleaner than fuel cars but are still a grossly energy and space inefficient means of transport.

The policy means greater spending on active travel and public transport and an end of spending on projects that result in an increase of car usage. Future Road projects will focus on safety and connecting ports to the motorway network, perhaps the M20 will still be built. More roads in cities is basically over as a transport policy, it didn't work.

This makes sense for the Irish economy as we do not have a car industry. Absolutely everything we spend on cars, fuel and oil is stimulus for car and oil producing economies. Cars are the second largest purchase for the average Irish person. Imagine we kept that money in the economy, we'd easily boost the size of our domestic economy 20%

Just to reflect back on this statement.

Is it not exactly how the World works??

The Tara Skryne valley, the Glen Of The Downs Woods, the Archaeology at Carrickmines...

All insurmountable legal obstacles in their day, yet look, there they are, all built and carrying hundreds of thousands of cars, every day.

Do you think the climate provisions are going to stop the M20 Cork-Limerick? By your logic it ought to, but you know it won't.

Same goes for the GRR, there will be a fudge, a trade-off, a few mitigations here, a few ameliorations there, maybe some eejit will buy carbon credits or something, but it will be built and you know it in places you don't talk about at parties.

All those roads were in a different era though.

It's like burning smokey coal, cutting turf, asbestos, lead in petrol. All phased out over time.

There will be no road.

Buying carbon credits to get it built LOL.

Isn't that interesting.

Why then did Micheál Lehane of RTÉ, report An Taoiseach's comments in respect of the GRR this morning as,

An Tánaiste backed up that position in a direct reply to Sean Canney TD in the Dáil.

Now, if I could just remember who Eamon Ryan's boss is again....

They tried that before in with the Galway bypass and the European courts finally put an end to it. It will be the same again this time if they are stupid enough to push that far. Sure what's another decade at this stage?

Same goes for the GRR, there will be a fudge, a trade-off, a few mitigations here, a few ameliorations there, maybe some eejit will buy carbon credits or something, but it will be built and you know it in places you don't talk about at parties.

I think the above quote from you is plausible, but it will be the GCRR that will get fudged for a smaller more purposeful scheme.

Cant see this road going ahead now its going to be tied up for several more years with ABP and then the court challenges which are likely to succeed coming after that. By the time all that rolls around we will have had 2 or 3 more years of bad news on climate change, carbon emissions targets missed, EU fines kicking in and so on. The political winds are shifting on new roads and this delay means it will be far harder to get it through.

Theyd be better off just pushing for a proper public transport plan now and getting that underway rather than wasting even more years on this road. But the problem is a majority of people in Galway seem to have tunnel vision about building this road, its become an obsession to many living there at this stage so no politician is going to say stop as theyll lose votes.