Galway congestion and ring road
Deputy Connolly cited a report showing rising congestion costs in Galway and questioned public transport coverage. The Taoiseach said the delayed ring road was a major factor and that investment in rail and bus services was also needed.
I raise the recent report by the Department of Transport regarding the cost of congestion in the regional cities of Waterford, Cork and Galway. The report highlighted the cost of congestion in Galway will double between now and 2030, from €54 million currently to €107.4 million in 2030, which is an astronomical figure.
In the following decade, from 2030 to 2040, the cost for Galway is expected to stabilise to €106.9 million. This stabilisation is based on the assumption the Galway city ring road will be operational post-2030. We heard already during Leaders' Questions how the Taoiseach values this project and wants to see it being promoted.
Despite this, Galway is still projected to be the city with the highest cost of congestion in 2040 - higher than Cork and Waterford. The report states the planned interventions - other than the road - are not sufficient to offset the increase in congestion in the city centre and wider metropolitan area. The report also highlighted the rate of public transport usage among commuters was five times the rate in Dublin as opposed to the regional cities.
Comment on this
This reflects insufficient scale and coverage of public transport. The Taoiseach needs to examine the NTA and its role in regional cities.
Comment on this
The cost of congestion in Galway is particularly high and the failure to get the ring road system through has been a significant contributing factor to this. It is currently with An Bord Pleanála but we need that ring road developed, and parallel with that, investment in public transport. There is investment under way in public transport in Galway both rail and through the NTA but I take the Deputy's point. Much consultation takes place. The NTA, in its BusConnects approach, creates much angst out there and then hence a lot of consultation. Then it takes a long time before we can get an agreed position. The Deputy has raised these serious issues which point to the need to try to get consensus. There needs to be consensus in Galway on public transport and the ring road issue.