M6 - Galway City Ring Road [planning decision pending]

Fair enough mate, you do you. I'm not going to go back and forth on it. It's there for anyone interested to read.

As for the JR, projects will continue to go ahead legally even if they lead to a net increase in emissions. It's the job of the Government to lower emissions, not ABP, and certainly not the courts. ABP did its job and looked at all the factors involved before rendering its decision. If you believe that the law has changed to simply ban projects which are not carbon neutral, I'm afraid you're in for some rather disappointing decisions in the years to come.

You're quite right, in European countries they built the bypasses a long time ago, making it much easier to subsequently introduce public transport and active travel. We should probably follow the steps which worked for them.

As for the legal aspects, we remain a sovereign and independent state. If reform of our planning laws is hindered by rules agreed at an EU level (which I doubt is the case), we'll just have to work with other states to change them, and if they do not work with our system, to begin to make space to opt out of them. There's generally scope for member states to be flexible in the details of how EU rules are implemented, so I doubt that would be needed, but we must take responsibility for the laws that apply in Ireland, including ones agreed at an EU level. It's only been the past decade or so that obstacles to planning have gotten completely out of hand, but there is no question now that - whatever the cause - they are out of hand. Major reform is desperately needed.

Without knowing what the methology for the BCR calculation is, it's hard to know how relevant in is. BCR is often a bit blunt, Net Present Value or other similar methods are often preferred.

In any case, approval under the Public Spending Code doesn't just come down to one figure, there's much more to it. See here;

We know for sure that the Galway Ring Road doesn't fit within the Capital Envelope until after 2026 at the earliest (so all the whinging about environment, Judicial Reviews, etc. are misplaced, they wouldn't actually delay the project for a while yet). It's hard to know whether it aligns with national policy right now, nevermind in a few years time (standalone road with nothing for public/active travel isn't a great look). Where will it sit in relation to Carbon Budgets. The relative merit of the Galway Ring Road might not look so hot in comparison to competing proposals of say 50km of DC replacing unsafe roads plus providing good walking/cycling facilities. The proposed road also has a high level of risk as there are some very large complex structures (tunnel, viaduct, etc.) and the whole lot really has to be delivered in one go, phasing hardly helps as the whole project as been built on the need for a full end-to-end bypass so curtailing probably breaks the case they have been making thus far. Then there is the matter of updating costs for any conidtions ABP may have impossed, and then seeong the actual tender prices they get back.

So yeah, the PSC is far from a straightforward hurdle to cross.

Paper never refused ink!

Everyone knows that pollution is bad for you, we've been living it with it for centuries. Don't worry though, EVs will help cut pollution in future. Also, I'm sorry to break it to you, but doctors have no expertise whatsoever in environmental matters.

Not really, no, unless it's a doctor with special training in public health and a subsequent research focus on respiratory disease. The typical doctor has next to no training on environmental matters.

I'd stick with ABP's view on it to be honest. They have far more experience in holistically weighing the pros and cons of complex infrastructure projects than any medic I know.

Just the normal amount of training and experience I would imagine.

@Seth Brundle I'm only of average intelligence, but even I know that reading a few articles doesn't make you an expert. Especially if the ever-increasing number of people who "did their own research" on the internet are anything to go by.

@SeanW It does feel a bit like some people want to take us back to the 70s/80s, at least from a personal mobility standpoint. The freedom of travel that came with greater car ownership and far better roads is a key part of the massive increase we saw in our standard of living. Ireland wasn't a better place to live when very few people travelled by car.

Happy Christmas all. Hope Santy is good to ye.

He already has, hence his ability to conceive of what doctors do.