Dublin Galway Greenway is the centrepiece of the National Greenway Strategy

At the launch of the highly anticipated greenway strategy last week Minister Shane Ross announced €53m funding for Greenways and highlighted his renewed focus on completing the Dublin Galway Greenway. The new greenway strategy sets out to defined what are strategic, national and regional greenways. Greenways of over 100km in length will be of national strategic importance and will be given priority in funding. The Dublin Galway greenway is being highlighted as of strategic importance and Ross said that “It is certainly our ambition that there will be at least one greenway that is coast to coast,” and later explained that tourism research indicted the need for such a project and stating his preference for a Dublin to Galway route. The minister also said that “It is most important that there is at least one icon project on which the others can be built and that is what the research shows and this is something that is going to appeal to a large number of people and benefit the midlands and the Hidden Heartlands" Mistakes in the past were addressed in the strategy with a much clearer Code of practice being developed for Greenways and also a more transparent and structured consultation process with landowners. The Irish Farmers Journals reports that the minister Ross reiterated that "we are absolutely determined that in-sensitivities that we’ve shown to the farming community will be resolved. And we accept in the past there might have been a lack of sensitivity". However, there are still some obvious concerns from the farming communities on what they fear may be the use of Compulsory Purchase Order (CPOs) in future greenway projects.

Comments

  1. Tasking TII/NRA with delivering cycling infrastructure following their fiasco in east Galway in 2015 seriously questions the competence of Shane Ross.

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