I wish to discuss the judicial reviews taken against the Galway city outer ring road. This road has been promised to Galway for decades. In that time, every other major Irish city and even smaller cities have developed their road network, while Galway has not. These judicial reviews will now further delay what has already been a ridiculously long process to get to this stage. It is essential that these reviews are carried out with urgency. It is extremely disappointing to see Green Party representatives support these reviews and advocate against the ring road.

The ring road, as we all know, is part of the programme for Government. The document was negotiated by three parties, none of which got everything it wanted. It is not appropriate for members of a party in government to advocate against projects which form part of the programme for Government. If such projects were a deal breaker, the time to raise them was two years ago.

As everybody knows, traffic is now so bad in Galway that I am aware of companies, when deciding where to set up, choose other cities largely based on traffic congestion. The lack of a bypass has damaged the local economy to a significant degree, already. I fully support public transport and cycling and agree there is room for improvement in infrastructure in those areas, but the simple fact is that Galway city's population will increase considerably over the coming years and is estimated to be in excess of 120,000 in ten years' time.

Our road network is incapable of handling the current level of traffic and with the population growth of 50% or more, it will be completely inadequate. Galway's current poor road infrastructure is a disservice to the people of the region, a major threat to the regional economy and considerable risk to the future and development of the region, especially as a lead region in the west.

Given the importance of the project, not just to Galway city, but to the entire region, including the 40,000 people living in Connemara and the tens of thousands of tourists who visit our region every year, I hope these judicial reviews will be carried out quickly to allow this project to move on, as quickly as possible.

I ask the Leader to request the Minister for Transport to come before this House immediately to indicate his full support for the Galway city outer ring road, as was given two years ago in the programme for Government.

I too would like to raise the issue of the Galway city ring road. I have supported this project and its precursor, the Galway city bypass, for all of my political career. It is regrettable that two judicial reviews have been lodged as of now, with perhaps more to come. The one from Galway city race committee makes clear that the committee supports the road but has issues with the planning conditions, although it is still regrettable that an application for a judicial review was lodged.

The Galway transport strategy is supported by both local authorities in Galway, the city and county councils. Indeed, it was supported by Galway County Council unanimously. The strategy involves a range of measures being put in place to support public transport, including a new quality bus corridor through the grounds of the hospital, up University Road and through the Salmon Weir, use of which by private vehicles will be restricted. A range of measures under BusConnects have been committed to, including on the Dublin Road and elsewhere. A number of greenway projects are also included in the strategy but are in limbo in terms of final consent. Hopefully, yesterday's Supreme Court decision on the south Kerry greenway will act as a driver and incentive to develop and allow planning applications to be lodged for greenways across the country, including from Galway city to Moycullen and Oughterard.

It is a source of regret that judicial reviews have been lodged, although it is not surprising. Unfortunately, in this country at the moment, we have a high level of judicial reviews for everything. It has become a bit of an industry which is regrettable. I certainly welcome the decision of the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke, to consider and reform the planning laws in a range of areas, including housing and critical infrastructure.

As we talk about alternatives to roads, we have to also look at the fare structures on buses. The adult daily return fare from Carna or Carraroe to Galway city is €20, for example. One can get to Dublin for less than that. That is not an incentive to use public transport. I welcome the initiative that has been put in place by my Green Party colleagues to provide reduced fares for students but we have to look at expanding that if we are serious about encouraging people to use buses as an alternative. That accepted, the Galway city ring road is vitally important to the people of Galway, the development of the city and quality of life. I hope that quick decisions can be made.

Finally, in this day and age, the use of cash and coins is greatly reduced but on toll roads in many different parts of the country there are coin-only toll booths and one cannot swipe a card. Perhaps we could write to TII or the operators of the toll booths to ensure that all booths have facilities to tap a card.

I want to raise the issue of the divestment of schools. The debate has sprung up again about the divestment of schools in this country, that is, schools removing themselves from the patronage of the Catholic Church. This debate has been springing up every now and again for the past few years, often when there is a slow news day.

As of 2021, of the national total of 3,126 standard schools, 88% had Catholic patrons, 5.7% were controlled by the Church of Ireland, 1% were controlled by other religious organisations while 5.4% were not affiliated with any particular religion. In 2018, the then Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, set up the oddly named "school reconfiguration for diversity" process to facilitate transfers of existing schools from religious patronage to that of secular bodies. Since then only 12 primary schools have taken up this offer, although more multi-denominational schools have been established or sanctioned than divested.

The programme for Government commits to achieving at least 400 multi-denominational schools by 2030 to improve parental choice. How does the Minister plan to achieve this? This House would be a good place for a debate on this issue. The transfer of patronage happens on a school-by-school basis, based on dialogue between the local bishop and the local State-run education and training board, ETB. This means that divestment only occurs where there is an actual grassroots call for it from parents in an area. Effecting change only where change is asked for will never allow the State to hit its target. The obvious way forward is a centralised consultation between the Minister and her Department and representatives of the ETBs and the Catholic bishops and archbishops, in tandem with localised surveys carried out by each school of families in its catchment area. These surveys would determine what groups want and what solution fits best.

I would love to see more diversity in schooling in Ireland. I am sure the Islamic Foundation of Ireland would love to be patron of more schools for Muslim children. There must be also be a desire among Hindu, Jewish or Orthodox residents in Ireland to see their beliefs reflected in schooling too. Maybe then we could have truly Catholic schools under a less thinly spread patronage and these too would be in high demand. A national survey carried out as recently as 2019 showed that 78% of parents supported the continued role of the Catholic Church in shaping the ethos of their children's school, with 9% saying that the church should have a much more active role. These parents want schools to reflect their beliefs as well.

I ask that the Minister for Education be invited to the House for a serious conversation on divestment and how the Department is planning to take religion out of our schools, while allowing those who want to have religion in schools to participate in that way.

I welcome the Acting Leader. I find myself in a situation where I disagree with all three previous speakers and I do not even know where to start.

Start at the beginning.

Business as usual seems to be the order of the day for the previous speakers. I have long said that I am against the Galway ring road, not because I am against all roads but because we are in the middle of a climate crisis. This is an old solution and new roads on this kind of scale have not been shown to reduce congestion. In fact, they lead to more congestion as we get more sprawl. That said, the attacks on the justice system in relation to judicial reviews by Senator Kyne's party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, who said that judicial reviews are a moneymaking racket or words to that effect are unwarranted. The parties that take these reviews are often charities. They do it because they are entitled to do so and we should not prevent them from doing so. In fact, we will get to a better planning system if we take these reviews seriously and go through the process. The reason for the increase in judicial reviews is poor planning law, such as the strategic housing development provisions which are now ended. That is what the increase in the last few years was about.

Galway is not like other cities in this country. It does not have large cities on either side of it. A road that would probably cost around €1 billion is oversized for the problem. It is the lack of investment by my colleague's parties - there are Galway Senators sitting on either side of me - over the last couple of decades in anything else that is the problem. They have promised the people of Galway something they have failed to deliver but they have also failed to deliver in areas like public transport. That is where we need to be looking. Only 8% of people in Galway are using bus corridors at the moment. We need to roll those out and we also need to roll out BusConnects and Connecting Ireland.

Where I would agree with Senator Kyne is in relation to the cost of public transport. I would love to see the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, looking at reducing the cost of public transport overall as one of the measures to address the cost of living. We have a couple of crises at the moment. One is the cost of living crisis and another is the climate crisis. We have to deal with both. We have to be serious and not just have business as usual. That is what I am hearing all around me. People are not prepared to take the necessary measures. We have Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors in Galway who are against a temporary cycle lane in Salthill bringing forward a motion next Monday. It seems to be one thing after the other when it comes to these two parties denying that we have to move forward and deal with this crisis.