Tánaiste Simon Harris said he wants an access dispute settled regarding public access to areas next to Renmore Barracks.
Mr Harris was visiting Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa to attended his first review of troops in Galway as minister for defence last week.
Speaking to the Galway Advertiser after reviewing the 126 infantry battalion ahead of its imminent deployment to Lebanon, Harris said he was in communication with Defence Forces’ chief of staff, General Seán Clancy, about a three-year-long access dispute between Galway City Council and the Army.
“I am confident we will find a solution to suit all interested parties,” he said, adding that he was being kept abreast of negotiations by his advisors. Mr Harris was expected to walk the areas in dispute accompanied by local councillors, but he departed early to catch a flight to Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral.
A high-level meeting between local army commanders, City Council staff and Department of Defence officials last month was held to find compromise for issues regarding public access to the service road next to Renmore Baracks. It is considered by planners a key, publicly-owned link in the chain for a cycleway linking Dublin with Galway city, terminating at Ballyloughane beach with further access to Ceannt train station via The Line over Lough Atalia.
However sources with knowledge of the meetings said local authority executives were taken aback at the cost implications and timescales for a resolution suggested by army personnel.
Last summer, mechanised gates appeared at the Renmore Road-end of the service road around Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa, forcing pedestrians and drivers wishing to visit the nearby Mellows Pitch & Putt Club to ask army sentries permission to enter. A gate from this Service Road onto land purchased by Galway City Council from the Department of Defence in 2009 was barricaded with steel security fencing.
Last month, army engineers are understood to have proposed a new pedestrian bridge over the Galway-Dublin railway to link a military-owned roadway alongside Renmore Barracks with Lakeshore Drive. This would provide access to a proposed pedestrian link and cycleway through council-owned land connecting the new coastal walkway around Liam Mellows GAA club built in 2023, with further connection to to the Galway-Dublin cycleway.
It is further understood that in the wake of a knife attack on an army chaplain at the gates of the barracks last summer, army officers are considering erecting a new barrier between the Garrison Church and the base’s main entrance, further restricting civilian access to walkways around the headland on which the barracks was built in 1881.
As Defence Forces installations are under a security audit at present after the knife attack, documents and designs shared at meetings between army engineers and City Council staff on public pathways have been put under restricted military access.
General Clancy told the Advertiser that officers from 1 Brigade were working with Galway City Council to find a “practical solution” but declined to confirm if new bridges and barriers were his preferred outcomes.
“This barracks has been part of the local community for more than a hundred years, and I am confident we will find a solution for all parties involved,” he said.
