Galway Ring Road takes another major step forward as three vacancies announced
They are looking for three people to spearhead the fast-tracked project
The Galway Ring Road has taken another major step forward as three new vacancies were announced just one month after the long awaited project was fast-tracked.
At the end of last month, the €317 million 18km project - connecting the N56 Moycullen Road to the Dublin Road corridor - was designated as “critical infrastructure” by Government with the removal of any possible legal challenge by climate campaigners to stop it in its tracks this time around.
Galway County Council has confirmed it is looking at filling three vacancies to spearhead the project which includes: Project Co-Ordinator; Project Liaison Officer and Project Resident Engineer.
The closing date for applications on all three is September 17.
Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation Jack Chambers said the people of Galway have been waiting long enough for the outer bypass and it would be top of the list of designated projects under the Critical Infrastructure Act, recently signed into law by President Catherine Connolly.
Under the Bill, every public body will be required to do everything within its power to accelerate approval of any designated projects in the energy, transport and water sectors deemed as being of particular importance to the economy.
It gives the Minister the power to designate publicly funded projects as critical infrastructure and create a fast-track channel where projects go to the top of the queue for assessment by decision making bodies.
It also “disapplies” Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 to prevent people taking legal challenges against projects on the grounds that they do not conform with their legal obligations under climate legislation.
The Minister said the legislation was necessary to balance urgent national infrastructure needs with a streamlined, more predictable planning system to allow more homes to be built and and the country's public transport and utility grids to be modernised.
Welcoming the ring road's designation, Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton said words must now turn into actions.
“This Government introduced the Critical Infrastructure Act in order to speed up and prevent objectors delaying infrastructure that the Government considers critical. The ring road, in its various designs, has been held up now for approximately 20 years and this cycle of stop-start needs to end,” the Galway West TD stated.
“By designating the ring road as critical infrastructure, the Government will disapply Section 15 of the Climate Act and thus prevent objectors applying to the courts to block the ring road using that Act, as they are presently.
“I am a former Chair of the Oireachtas Climate Committee, and it was never the intention that our Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act be a stick to beat vital infrastructure into submission. This vital designation of our Ring Road will ensure that objectors are not able to use our own laws to defeat the public good.”
The High Court granted leave to four residents to seek a judicial review of the permission granted by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) in April. Judge Richard Humphreys set a provisional date in November for the substantive hearing of the cases.
An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment have also applied to the High Court to challenge new Government regulations they say will severely restrict access to justice in environmental cases. The regulations put strict limits on the legal costs that successful litigants can recover when they win an environmental case, potentially leaving them with bills in excess of €100,000.
The Government has allocated over €1 billion under the National Development Plan for the road.