The decision was made following receipt by Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe of a report by Transport Infrastructure Ireland which consulted with landowners along the preferred Galway/Roscommon section of the route to determine their views on, and willingness to progress, the project.

Opposition was strongest in Co Galway, where the Greenway would have cut through mainly private farmland, peatlands and forestry. Consultations in 2015 with around 20% of the 194 landowners along the route corridor between Galway city and Ballinasloe found that some 63% would object to it, while 27% would accommodate it.

The landowners identified a wide range of concerns, foremost of which was the potential impact on farming. Concerns expressed by farmers included farm severance and loss of land, disruption to farming operations, loss of farm income and increased insurance premiums. This was closely followed by concerns about security, with some of the proposals resulting in having the cycleway less than 200m from farmers’ yards.

Also, some farmers feared that cycleway users, on a greenfield route, would be at risk from livestock, especially bulls, crop spraying, slurry spreading and silage cutting.

Kevin Hannon, a dairy farmer from Craughwell in Co Galway, says the cycleway would have cut right through the middle of his farm.

“It would have meant closing and opening the gates at least four time a day to get the cows milked. I would also have been responsible for clearing up the Greenway after the cows had gone across it.”

He added that he has no objection to a cycleway in this part of the country – “it would be great for tourism” – but he said it would be better if the route followed the natural boundaries of farmland and did not cut straight through it. "A greenway is off-road and cuts through land, that's not acceptable."

Responding to news of the stoppage, Hannon said he was happy the Department had pressed pause on the project and said further consultation with landowners would be needed before it resumed.

There was less opposition to the route in Co Roscommon where the Greenway would have affected more State-owned lands.

Focus on Kildare/Meath section

In a statement on Friday, the Department of Transport said a decision has been made to focus on the Kildare/Meath section of the route instead.

“The goal of an iconic cross-country Greenway from Dublin to Galway remains a priority for this Government,” said Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe. “However, we will now focus on completing the Greenway from Maynooth to Westmeath, with a view to having that section completed in 2017. Funds are limited in respect of Greenways, as they are in all areas, so I have come to the decision, in the interest of delivering not just the Dublin-to-Galway Greenway but greenways throughout the country, to progress only those projects that have been properly assessed and approved and that have planning permission in place and are ready to go.”

Recommendations

Recommendations for the future of the project contained in the report include reconsidering the route through Roscommon and Galway to ensure that the concerns of individual landowners are addressed, mitigating the impact of the cycleway on landowners to the maximum possible extent, and engaging with farming representative organisations at national level to agree a fair and acceptable compensation framework, and at local level to give confidence that farmers’ concerns are being addressed.

The Galway-to-Dublin Cycleway is the pilot project in the National Cycle Network and will be Ireland’s first dedicated inter-city coast-to-coast route for cyclists. Market research by Fáilte Ireland indicates that the cycleway will be a successful tourism product.