Traffic congestion must be tackled to make our city centres viable

Fine Gael Galway Senator, Hildegarde Naughton, has today (Wednesday) highlighted the need for a solution to traffic management problems in Galway and throughout the country. Senator Naugthon, in her maiden Seanad speech, invited the Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Leo Varadkar TD, to participate in a Seanad debate on traffic management in our major cities. She also called on all local authorities to engage in a joined up thinking approach to combat the traffic problem which threatens the future viability of local businesses in city centres all over the country.

“We need to tackle traffic congestion over the next 10 years in order to ensure the future viability of our city centres. I, for one, do not want to see businesses and their customers migrate to out of town locations which will sound the death knell of urban centres. I am concerned that our councils are not showing necessary leadership to sort out traffic congestion in our cities.

“Recent proposals by the National Roads Authority regarding pedestrian and vehicular traffic in Dublin city centre have been greeted with alarming scepticism by Dublin City Council officials. As highlighted in yesterday’s Irish Times editorial, this is a further example of empire building and infighting between the archaic structures of local government verses the needs of the citizens and business people. This situation is not isolated. I have first-hand experience of similar challenges in Galway City in relation to traffic management.

“As Mayor of Galway City, I initiated and facilitated a traffic report with an advisory group consisting of people from Engineers Ireland, NUI Galway and the Galway Chamber of Commerce. Their role was to engage with the citizens of Galway, the local authorities and relevant agencies to elicit cost effective measures which would alleviate traffic flow in the city. The response from the citizens was extremely positive and over 30 recommendations were published and presented to the City Council.

“A number of these measures have been implemented, however a lot more needs to be done to tackle this serious issue. I recently facilitated a second report which is due to be published in the coming weeks asking the citizens of Galway to describe how their journeys have changed over the last 12 months, following a number of significant infrastructural changes.”

“As a country, we have a major challenge to counteract congestion in our city centres and make them more viable and sustainable. The issue is not isolated to my native Galway and has major national implications for business, tourism and investment in our main cities and surrounding areas. We need a multi-agency approach to this and I would welcome the Minister’s participation in this debate.”