This is the issue Galway West TD John Connolly has brought to ministers after the revised National Planning Framework was published by the Government last month.
“I’m open to conversations about picking up where the review body in 2018 tasked with looking at the future of the two Galway local authorities left off,” he told the Advertiser last night. “Department of Environment officials recommended amalgamation of Galway city and county councils, but that came a cropper because it didn’t have widespread political support. I think we should be having mature conversations about this now, especially with projections that Galway city will grow by 50 per cent by 2040,”
Connolly says he has raised the necessity for legislation with Minister of State for Local Government, John Cummins, if some form of new authority is to be established to run an enlarged Galway Metropolitan Area, including the city and its commuter towns.
At present, Galway County Council administers everything outside the city limits which go in an arc from Silver Strand to Roscam via Menlo.
“I cannot see successfully shared administration by two local authorities, so a new metropolitan body may need to be set up by law, and a funding mechanism must be included in any legislative basis.”
Speaking in the Dáil last week, Connolly called for deficiencies in the Galway City Metropolitan Area Strategic Plan (MASP ) to be addressed.
Galway City Council noted in a submission to the County Galway Development Plan that the plan contained an overly generous residential zoning in the county MASP area, while Galway County Council’s NPF submission sought greater clarity in respect of its role within the Galway MASP area, noted Connolly, who said these submissions indicate “uncertainty as to where responsibility for the development of the MASP area lies”.
The last time plans for an amalgamation of local government services was discussed in County Hall in 2023, there were heated scenes when Barna’s Councillor Tomás Ó Curraoin likened a city council expansion to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Connolly claims there is “no funding for the MASP area” and he called on James Browne, Fianna Fáil’s Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to legislate in this regard.
“The Department needs to take the lead on this issue,” he said. “When I look at some of the key enablers for Galway in the NPF, they are remarkably similar to those contained in the original framework. This suggests we haven’t? seen sufficient progress in developing the city to the city of scale proposed in the [current] NPF.”
