Back to basics in Galway - Village Magazine

24 February 2015

ALWAY Harbour Company is seek-

ing permission for the development

of a 27-hectare, €52m extension of

the harbour, which will include the crea-

tion of commercial quays, a deep-water

docking facility and the reclamation of

lands from the sea. The State-owned

company wants a new commercial har-

bour to accommodate ships up to 40,000

tonnes for Topaz and the local quarry

and scrap trade, with inﬁll and a jetty

sticking out into the European Habitats

and Birds Directive protected bay. The

case was heard at a planning hearing in

Galway over much of January.

The Harbour Company has been fol-

lowing a property development policy

since the mid 1980s, when it started sell-

ing oﬀ surplus sites to builders who went

on to construct the Dun Aengus apart-

ments, and the hotel and apartments

developed opposite at Richardson’s Bend,

as well as the site of the former Shell Oil

tank farm which has yet to be built on

while its new owner, Gerry Barrett, nego-

tiates with NAMA.

The 2011 Bord Snip report considered

it “evident that there are too many ports

for the trade available that......the sec-

tor would beneﬁt from a rationalisation

of ownership/management structures.

Separate boards, management, audi-

tors and investment plans, are diﬃcult

to justify for companies which in some

cases have annual turnover of €1 million

or less”. Galway’s was around €3.5m in

2013.

Denis O’Brien’s Topaz wants to

increase its oil import business through

the tank facility in Galway city, cur-

rently limited to ships of 5,000 tonnes.

However the real commercial driver

of the project is the international bitu-

men supply company Cold Chon which

has a tank depot for Irish distribution

in Galway, but now wants to bring Shell-

sourced bitumen from North America

in 40,000-tonne tankers, for tranship-

ment in 5,000-tonne tankers to other

European ports. The accommodation of

Galway as a base for oﬀshore oil and gas

drilling, with renewables mentioned as

a worthy sop, was also a major part of the

case made.

Bizarrely, a huge climate-change-in-

diﬀerent rent-a-crowd, including local

politicians, seemed to think all of this a

good idea. The business world in Galway

was dazzled by the dressing up of the

project as a means to accommodate spiﬀ-

ing berthage for cash-rich cruise-liner

passengers popping in to buy Aran cardi-

gans, take bus tours all over Connemara,

and absorb the ubiquitous craic, presem-

ably, on the odd few days when petroleum

ships would not be docking.

The increase of ﬂood risk to Galway

city centre, and the inadequate road

connection from the port to the national

road system which threatens to engulf

the city centre in traﬃc seems to have

escaped most local concern.

The case for Galway Harbour Company

was presented by barrister Esmond

Keane SC – well known in the Irish

anti-environmental world through his

representation of Shell and EP Ireland

in the Corrib gas saga and for his shep-

herding of the M3 motorway scheme

near ancient, mystic Tara.

Some of the most vicious cross-exami-

nation I have ever seen at a hearing came

when he launched into Mary Hughes,

President of the Irish Planning Institute,

who was representing Shannon Foynes

port, and simply arguing that the scheme

contravened the 2013 National Ports

Policy, which designated ﬁve National

ports including Foynes, with Galway only

having Regional status.

While climate rarely seems to impinge

on plan-driven An Bord Pleanála, the fol-

lowing problems may:

• The 2013 National Ports Policy, which

outlined a plan-led strategy, deﬁned a

3-three-tier rating system for ports.

The Galway Harbour Extension pro-

posal for a Tier 3 regional port, without

direct connection to the national road

network, contravenes this national

strategy

• The plan is based on a awed socio-eco-

nomic model of continued fossil-fuel,

resource-ravaging and biodiversi-

ty-diminishing short term economic

development. The Plan facilitates the

unsustainable increase in imported fos-

sil fuel and petroleum products and had

no integration with the required transi-

tion to a low carbon future.

• The plan worsens HGV and oil-tanker

traﬃc through the urban area of Galway,

from Lough Atalia Road to the national

roads network.

• The national ‘low-carbon road map’ pro-

vided under current Government policy

will require the progressive reduction

of import of coal, oil and other products

leaving port space at Foynes redundant,

and obviating the case for new capacity

in Galway.

• Galway port needs to integrate with the

urgent strategic planning needed to

protect Galway city from rising sea lev-

els and increased exposure to Atlantic

storms.

The development constitutes an inter-

vention in a candidate EU-designated

Special Area for Conservation and

Special Protection Area for birds which

the applicants consultants have accepted

to be “signicant”. •

Ian Lumley presented the case for An Taisce

at the recent oral hearing in Galway on its

port extension.

The apparently popular Galway port extension would damage habits, the climate

and national policy. By Ian Lumley

Back to basics in Galway

NEWS GALWAY PORT

The business

world in

Galway was

dazzled by the

dressing up

of the project

as a means to

accommodate

spiﬃng

berthage for

cash-rich

cruise-liner

passengers

“

the RMS Queen Mary is next in