Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 13 Nov 1996

Vol. 149 No. 6

Adjournment Matters. - Funding for Galway Road.

Mr. Fahey

I thank the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Deputy McManus, for coming to the House to deal with my request to the Minister for the Environment to meet the Knocknacarragh combined residents' association with a view to providing £1 million to Galway Corporation towards the construction of the western distributor road. I raised this issue two years ago when I asked the Minister to make a special allocation towards the construction of this road. His response at the time and since then has been most disappointing. He referred the issue to Galway Corporation to provide money from its existing block grants and revenue, which in 1996 only amounted to £210,000 under the non-national roads programme and £300,000 in block grants.

I ask the Minister to give this major road project the special consideration and attention it deserves. The overall cost of the project is £5 million, including roundabouts. Approximately £1.5 million has been spent to date on two sections of the road. The provision of £1 million would enable the construction of the road between Miller's Lane and the Clyborne Road to be completed and eliminate the serious traffic problems which exist.

Knocknacarragh is a new town with a population of 8,000 people, built on the western environs of Galway city. The expansion of the area has been so dramatic that its population has doubled in the last four years. It has been left almost completely without essential infrastructural services due to a combination of bad planning, lack of resources and unprecedented growth. Population growth projections estimate that up to 16,000 people will live there by the year 2000. The main infrastructural requirement is the construction of the western distributor road. Knocknacarragh has only one access road to Galway city, the old Spiddal road on which I am sure the Minister has travelled. This carried capacity traffic even before the development of Knocknacarragh. At present it takes traffic up to 45 minutes to travel the three mile journey from Knocknacarragh to Galway city. There are long and frustrating traffic delays, particularly at peak times.

Galway Corporation's method of financing the road is the use of planning contributions from new houses which are now being developed in the area. It is shameful to spend planning contributions on a distributor road when such contributions should be spent on infrastructural facilities for the area, including local roads, sanitary services and, in particular, open space, playing facilities and other amenities. Inadequate planning is now being followed by a failure on the part of the local authority to provide adequate infrastructure. This means Knocknacarragh is beginning to experience many of the social problems which are inevitable in such circumstances.

Using the £2,400 planning contribution from each householder to pay developers to build this road is entirely unacceptable. It is the most important road project in the west and it should be funded from central Exchequer funds, not from people's planning contributions, which are £700 more in Knocknacarragh than contributions paid in other parts of Galway city.

Is é seo an phríomh bhóthar atá ag dul go Barna, An Spidéal agus Gaeltacht Chonamara, áiteanna go bhfuil tionscailíocht mhór le fáil iontu — Indreabháin, Caisle, an Ceathrú Rua, an caladh is mó ar an chosta, sé sin Ros a'Mhíl, ceannáras Údarás na Gaeltachta agus, ar ndóigh, Roinn na Gaeltachta.

Tá suas le 20,000 daoine ina gconaí agus ag obair sa Ghaeltacht agus tá siad ag baint úsáid as an bothar seo chun teacht go dtí cathair na Gaillimhe. Aon scrúdú eacnamaíochta gur féidir leat a dhéanamh taispeánfaidh sé go bhfuil a lán airgid caillte i nGaeltacht Chonamara muna bhfuil bóthar ceart acu le dul go dtí cathair na Gaillimhe.

Building the most important and urgently needed road in the west on the planning contributions of the people of Knocknacarragh is sheer economic lunacy. Hundreds more houses must receive planning permission where services do not exist in order to continue the road, which at present is being built from both ends on a piecemeal basis. This defies all logic and common sense. Of most concern is the fact that at the current rate of progress, the road will not be completed for at least three years. The spending of £1 million immediately on this project would rank as the most important expenditure by the Department this year. A further £1 million allocation next year would complete the final phase of the road between the Ballymoneen Road and the Cappagh Road, thereby serving all of Knocknacarragh.

The major concern of the people of Knocknacarragh is the unacceptable traffic problem which even supersedes the urgent need for community facilities for a growing young population. The area has been fraught with difficulties caused by road works and, the need to bring additional services into Knocknacarragh, which continues to grow beyond all predictions. I hope the Minister will respond positively to my request for him to meet the combined residents' association of Knocknacarragh, which represents a population of 8,000 people, to hear their views on the necessity for their special case to be addressed without further delay. A sum of £1 million for the next phase of this road should be provided immediately.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Ms McManus)

I am glad to have this opportunity to address the House on this important matter. The Minister for the Environment has received no requests to date from the residents for a meeting in connection with the road project. The purpose of the road is, I understand, to relieve the existing narrow and inadequate road system which has substantial housing developments along it and also to open up industrial development lands to the west of the city. It would also serve tourism, fisheries and forestry in Connemara and west Galway.

I understand the new road would be 2.73 kilometres in length and would cost in excess of £5.7 million to construct. This is a considerable sum by any standard. An allocation of £1 million would, therefore, enable only a portion of the new road to be provided. As the proposed road would be a non-national route, responsibility for its construction is a matter in the first instance for Galway Corporation. Specifically, it would be a matter for the corporation to fund the road from its resources, supplemented by annual State grants.

I wish to outline the types of grants which are available from my Department for road developments, such as the route under discussion. There are the traditional annual discretionary block grants to local authorities, which give a very wide degree of discretion to local authorities as to how the moneys should be used and, in the case of urban authorities, allow them to decide not only what road schemes the moneys should be spent on, but also how the grant moneys should be divided between maintenance and improvement works. Under this heading Galway Corporation will receive a grant of £300,000 in 1996.

The second source of State funding for non-national roads is under the EU co-financed scheme of specific grants for road improvements which promote employment and economic activity. In particular, under this scheme co-financed projects must have a significant and quantifiable economic impact, particularly as regards employment and on industrial, tourism, agricultural and rural development. Local authorities prepare and submit annually to my Department proposals in respect of improvement works on non-national roads which can be considered for funding under this heading.

Under this scheme Galway Corporation received grants of £150,000 in 1994 and £247,000 in 1995. I should mention here that the road under discussion was not the subject of a formal application for an EU co-financed improvement grant, either in 1994 or 1995. However, it was one of three proposals received from the corporation late last year for consideration for funding in 1996. As the applications submitted by the local authority considerably exceeded the appropriate expenditure guideline limit set by my Department, the proposals were returned to the corporation for revision and resubmission. The corporation resubmitted two proposals — not including the western distributor road — in December 1995 for funding in 1996 at a cost of £335,000 and received a grant allocation of £215,000 in respect of 1996.

Local authorities are advised by my Department that it is accepted that circumstances can arise where a single large high priority project can exceed the expenditure guideline. In such circumstances, only the single project concerned should be submitted for consideration. In the event, the corporation recently submitted three proposals for consideration for funding in 1997. Two of the proposals related to the western distributor road scheme and these were prioritised as numbers two and three on this list. However, as these applications again breached the expenditure guidelines, they have been returned to the corporation for revision.

The Minister is simply not in a position to fund all applications submitted by the corporation given the limited funds available under this scheme and the competing demands from all other local authorities. It is a matter for each local authority to determine its priorities in this area and to submit proposals to my Department that come within the appropriate guideline limits. Any other approach by my Department would result in a flood of applications from local authorities and would not be realistic. I should also make clear that in this respect, Galway Corporation is in the same position as every other local authority and must operate within the agreed rules.

Overall, record grants of almost £147 million will be paid to local authorities in 1996 for non-national roads. This represents an unprecedented increase of more than £40 million, or almost 39 per cent, on the base allocation for 1995. So far as future progress is concerned, it is clearly a matter for Galway Corporation to decide how to proceed with this matter. It is open to the corporation to finance the proposed road over a number of years out of its own resources supplemented by the block grant from my Department. Equally, the corporation may wish to consider submitting an application to my Department for funding under the EU co-financed scheme of grants in 1997 on the basis outlined earlier. If it decides to do so, the application will be considered on its merits in conjunction with other applications which are received from other areas. In this regard, it is not envisaged that allocations generally will be made until early 1997.

In the circumstances, the House will agree that at this stage the ball lies firmly in the court of Galway Corporation and that no useful purpose would be served by the Minister for the Environment meeting a deputation of residents at this time.

Mr. Fahey

I made a request to the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Higgins, and the Minister for the Environment and I ask that it be reconsidered. I am disappointed with this reply — the ball is not in the court of Galway Corporation. I ask that the Department look at this project on the basis of what I have said.