Responding to positive comments from her colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, local TD and Minister for Education, Hildegarde Naughton, has indicated that she will ensure that the Galway Ring Road be designated as critical infrastructure under the Critical Infrastructure Act in the coming months. Minister Chambers indicated at the weekend that he would expect the ring road to be included in the list of critical infrastructure projects.
“I was pleased to hear my colleague, Minister Chambers, give a positive indication as to the designation of the ring road. Words must now turn into actions, and I will work with my colleague over the next period to ensure that the ring road is included on the first list of critical infrastructure projects,” Minister Naughton said.
This Government introduced the Critical Infrastructure Act, which the President has now signed into law, 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 Minister said.
“By designating the ring road as critical infrastructure, the Government will disapply Section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 and thus prevent objectors applying to the Courts to block the ring road using that Act, as they are presently. As we all know, there are several challenges ongoing at present into the planning permission granted by An Coimisiún Pleanála,” Minister Naughton indicated.
“Additionally, designation under the Act will mean that all the State agencies involved in the ring road will be made to commit all their resources to it’s delivery, either through the various stages of approvals required or the actual build itself,” the local TD added.
“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.”
