Several Galway residents have launched High Court actions challenging permission granted for the long-delayed Galway ring road.
The touted N6 Galway Ring Road is an 18km project intended to provide an orbital route around Galway city, linking the N56 Moycullen Road to the N6 Dublin Road corridor.
On Wednesday, Judge Richard Humphreys gave the go-ahead to several Galway residents to launch three lawsuits against An Coimisiún Pleanála, seeking to quash permission granted to Galway City Council and Galway County Council in April for the ring road.
Barrister Damien Keaney, appearing for parties taking two of the cases, told the judge a fourth lawsuit was due to issue, also challenging the grant of permission.
RM Block
Patrick and Marina O’Malley, a consultant surgeon and a GP, live at Aughnacurra, a housing estate in Dangan, Galway. The proposed ring road is set to traverse the estate and will require the demolition of five of the 14 houses in the complex.
The O’Malleys live in one of houses set to remain in situ.
In their court documents, the O’Malleys say the development will have a “permanent, significant and profound” impact on the residents of the remaining houses, pointing to an environmental impact assessment submitted to the commission by the councils.
Despite this, the O’Malleys say, the commission found the level of impact would not be so significant as to warrant the acquisition of the remaining houses in the estate, including theirs.
The O’Malleys claim the commission failed to assess the impact of the development on the estate and its community, including the fragmentation of the estate.
They say the commission did not provide adequate reason for approving the proposed configuration of the housing estate following the road’s construction, notwithstanding the impacts on the retained dwellings.
They say the decision also interferes with their property rights.
In another case, Michael and Annette Kerin, a consultant surgeon and retired dermatologist, say the commission did not consider the impact on them of a compulsory purchase order – approved under the proposed development – over their lands at Ard an Locha, Dangan.
According to court documents, the Kerins say they intended to seek planning permission to build a home on the lands for their adult son, who has additional needs. The lands adjoin the site of the Kerins’ family home.
They say the commission failed to provide reasons for its decision to exclude the site of their family home from the compulsory purchase order, despite significant impacts on their dwelling outlined in the councils’ environmental impact assessment.
Shane Foran, a software engineer from Rahoon, Galway, is also challenging the grant of permission. He claims the commission, in granting permission for the road, breached its duties under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2021.
Foran is representing himself in the proceedings.
The judge set a provisional date in November for the substantive hearing of the cases.
