OUTER CITY BYPASS TO GO BACK TO SUPREME COURT FOLLOWING EUROPEAN RULING

Date Published: 11-Apr-2013

The man who took the case of the outer city bypass to the European Court of Justice, the ECJ, claims today's judgement means the project is dead as a doornail

However the local authorities today reiterated the project is a critical one and must now be returned to the Supreme Court for judgement

The issue was referred to Europe the Supreme Court here after the appeal by environmental activist Peter Sweetman

He claims that the planning authority interpreted the Habitats Directive incorrectly in granting permission for the road scheme

The judgement issued this morning has outlined the criteria which must be used in relation to the Habitats Directive when assessing the Galway City Outer Bypass

The ECJ says that if the outer city bypass prevents the preservation of the site for its characteristics as a natural habitat, then it would be considered to adversly affect the intergrity of the site

The European Court says that this precautionary principal should be applied for the purposes of the appraisal of the Galway City Outer Bypass scheme

Peter Sweetman told Galway Talks the very convoluted finding means the current plans for the outer city bypass are dead despite what politicians or officials might say

County council director of services Frank Gilmore says the outer city bypass has the backing of the two local authorities and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar

Galway West Fine Gael Deputy Sean Kyne says the EIROPI process, a European route for projects considered to be for the global good is an option

However Deputy Kyne says no matter what happens from now on delays will continue with this vital project for Galway's development