Baineann mo cheist le mo chathair féin, cathair álainn dhátheangach ar imeall na Gaeltachta is mó sa tír ach cathair atá ag déileáil le fadhbanna ollmhóra, an ghéarchéim tithíochta agus géarchéim na dtranglam tráchta san áireamh. Eascraíonn na fadhbanna sin go díreach as polasaí na comhairle cathrach agus polasaí an Rialtais. Táimid tagtha go dtí am na cinniúna. Tá ceist le cur agus freagra ag teastáil. Cá bhfuil ár dtriail mar chathair i gcomhthéacs na ndualgas atá orainn maidir le hathrú aeráide?

As the Minister will have grasped, my question relates to Galway city, which is naturally beautiful. It is a bilingual city and a gateway to the biggest Gaeltacht in the country. It is a city that is struggling with serious problems. It is choked with traffic and faces a serious housing crisis. I have raised this issue before and have received no replies. I have repeatedly brought it to the attention of each Government since 2016 that there are solutions to this problem.

I sat on a local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put park and ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis. A report from the Land Development Agency, LDA, stated that two-thirds of the land identified by the LDA in Galway is in category 3, with significant problems. Part of it is in Merlin Park University Hospital which will never be used for housing.

Recently, a conference was held, Reimagining the Irish City, hosted by the O'Reilly Institute, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, the Academy of Urbanism and Galway City Council. I praised it, but it is significant that it was not an inclusive conference. I understand the tickets cost a couple of hundred euro in order to attend it in St. Nicholas's church. It should have been held in a city council building, led by the city council, but there was a complete absence of vision and leadership.

Before the Minister comes back to me tells me this is a local authority issue, I wish to state this is an issue for the Government in regard to our climate obligations and building a sustainable city. My preference would be public transport with light rail, but there are many solutions. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated. I present this as someone who is very proud of my city, i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla, ach tá gá le réitigh inmharthana.

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising these issues. Everybody in the House appreciates the beauty, benefit and importance of Galway as a city not just to the west and north-west regions but as a city of strategic importance to our country. Some of the issues are, quite frankly, related to the local authority and there is no getting away from that, but I accept that not all are.

Of course, local authorities received significant funding. I am not casting aspersions on any local authority, but they need to set out their own priorities in terms of housing schemes, county development plans and the drawing down of Government funding, which is probably at a level never seen before. In my role as a public representative, I see the opportunity for local authorities to draw down and access funding across a wide range of Government schemes to improve cities and counties. Funding is probably at an unparalleled and unprecedented level.

I am also very conscious that Galway is a place in which we are continuing to see job investment. In recent days we saw people deciding to invest in Galway. I will get to the transport issue in a moment but in my ministerial brief, I recognise the significant investment we have seen in regard to education in Galway. Not only do we have the University of Galway, Atlantic Technological University has opened and there are major developments and plans under way including expansion at what was the old rugby club site. There are plans for a college of further education. The Government has not been found wanting when it comes to investment in Galway. Investment has led to significant job creation.

From talking to my colleagues from Galway, I accept there are real issues when it comes to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway. These are concerns we share. I would certainly take that these concerns to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, without wading into what I know is a very heated view on the ring road and the like. That was struck down by An Bord Pleanála. There had probably been a lot of energy put behind that project.

We share the view that we need a park-and-ride facility and I understand there are also BusConnects plans. I am very happy to pass on the views of the Deputy on public transport, accessibility and so on to the Minister for Transport. I also suggest that the city council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down and apply for funding from a range of schemes, including in the public transport area.

First, a correction. An Bord Pleanála did not say, "No" to the ring road; the High Court said, "No" to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations. That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.

In the conference I mentioned, the chief planner, who has huge experience in Freiburg, described Galway as being like a mouthful of broken teeth. He also said there was very little sign of urgency in regard to our obligations in respect of climate change with the way development was taking place in Galway. We have any amount of possibilities. Mar a dúirt mé i nGaeilge, is am na cinniúna é. It is the tipping point. It is time to make transformative decisions.

Sorting out the housing crisis by building public housing is a major part of the solution. Not a single unit of public housing was built in Galway in 2002. There is no master plan for the city. The docks are doing their own thing. Níl aon mhórphlean ann. Ceannt Station is doing its own thing. Sandy Road is doing its own thing. There is no overall planning to bring together a comprehensive and transformative plan to make Galway a green city. We have employment and beauty. We are choking it through a lack of direction from management, in particular from the Government which is not telling the city it has to comply with obligations under climate change.

Of course it has to comply with its obligations under climate change. Even in discussions at Cabinet yesterday and announcements by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, make it very clear that it can no longer be about Government, be it national or local, telling other people that climate change requires them to change. There is a significant programme of change that every public body, including local authorities, need to undertake. To be clear, the legal requirement of Ireland Inc., of which the Deputy's city and county council are a part, is absolutely apparent.

Mea culpa on the High Court piece. The Deputy is, of course, entirely correct on that. I am aware that the LDA has significant development plans for Galway. From a Government point of view, we have capitalised the LDA in a very meaningful way. It is not short, in any manner or means, in its ability to get on with delivering projects. Across healthcare, which has been a major issue of concern in Galway for many years, my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is moving ahead with an elective hospital that will help the people of Galway significantly.

I take the Deputy's point and view on the need for a master plan. I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.