DURING CHRISTMAS, WE had friends visit us from Philadelphia, a bustling metropolis of over six million people. We showed them around Galway City, a place we hold dear. Calling it a ‘city’ seemed a stretch for them, they struggled to see it as anything other than a large town. (They loved it, by the way.)

Galway might be a large town in global terms, but we take pride in calling it a city. It spans about 10 km, is mostly flat, and is home to 85,000 people. 64,000 people live within a 20-minute bike ride from Eyre Square, the heart of the city. Yet it’s now ranked as the 56th most congested place in the Inrix Global Traffic Scoreboard, which ranks 900 cities worldwide.

Inrix, an entity that specialises in analysing transport mobility in cities, also ranks Galway as ninth in Europe for traffic delay times. How have we allowed our small city to become so difficult to navigate, and why are we doing nothing to fix it?

The Ring Road

What if I told you that we could fix it but have decided not to, until such time as we build a new one billion euro road around Galway? Planning for this road began over 25 years ago, in the last century. What if I also told you that a High Court judgment handed down last week in relation to wind farms effectively spells the end of the Galway Ring Road project by stating that planners must comply with climate law for large capital projects?

Let’s start with a little background on the Galway Ring Road. An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for the project in 2021. That decision was overturned by the High Court in 2023, primarily because the applicant, Galway County Council, failed to comply with Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act.

Section 15 isn’t complicated. It simply says that an applicant must have regard to “the objective of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change in the State”. Galway County Council, in making its planning application, told An Bord Pleanála that if the ring road is built we will see an increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 37%, with a mere 5% of daily commuters using public transport. That High Court decision obliged the Council to revisit their plans, and they recently submitted new documentation to An Bord Pleanála, in a final effort to secure planning permission.

Last week, the High Court overturned yet another decision of An Bord Pleanála, this time for a wind farm in Co. Laois. An Bord Pleanála had refused permission for the wind farm, but Justice Richard Humphreys slated that decision, again citing Section 15 of the same act. He accused An Bord Pleanála of an “unwillingness to face new realities”. He went on to say that “an immediate end to business as usual is a precondition for planetary survival.” 

What now?

This judgment has far-reaching implications for our country as a whole and should cause us to engage in some deep reflection. Incidentally, it’s exactly the outcome envisaged by our legislators when the Dáil voted almost unanimously for the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act in 2021. The Act is designed to prompt a move away from business as usual and compel thorough assessment of climate implications in all planning decisions.

Furthermore, a recent report from the Fiscal Advisory Council tells us that we face up to €20 billion in fines if we fail to achieve major reductions in carbon emissions by 2030, with transport being the biggest contributor.

So where does this leave traffic-choked Galway City? In a state of self-imposed stagnation, I would argue. However, we do have choices available to us, and we should be honest in making them sooner rather than later.

When a High Court judge tells us that it’s the end of business as usual, well then, it is. When a local authority has spent 25 years and over €35m on a road project, with absolutely nothing to show for it, is that not the very definition of an unwillingness to face new realities?

So here’s my plea to our incoming government. Please abandon the concept of a Galway Ring Road. It’s last-century thinking. Instead, spend a billion euros on building transformative public transport and active travel infrastructure across our small city.

You’ll have change, in every sense of the word.

Ciarán Cannon is a former Minister of State in Education and Foreign Affairs.