The refusal of An Bord Pleanala to grant planning permission for a badly needed link road at Parkmore in Galway City is an outrage and it will cost jobs in Galway in the long run.
I am shocked at the decision of An Bord Pleanala. There are 6,000 people working at the Parkmore estate and they face delays of over an hour every day going to and coming from their employment and future foreign direct investment in Galway will be jepoardised as a result of this decision. I met with major employers from the West of Ireland in Westport last week and they put it to me very bluntly that the traffic chaos in Galway City was a major impediment to job creation in the area.
I would seriously question An Bord Pleanala on this decision and am calling on the Government and Galway county council to revisit this proposal as soon as possible. There is not much point people trying to attract jobs to the West and to Galway if this is what happens when a sensible and practical suggestion is made to alleviate the traffic chaos in the city. I will be raising this matter in the Dail when it resumes next week.