New WDC Report Highlights Important Transport Demand Patterns |
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New WDC Report Highlights Important Transport Demand Patterns in Galway City and County. Over a quarter of all workers in Western Region, from Donegal to Clare, live in Galway city labour catchment. Workers who live in the Galway city labour catchment have a higher level of education than the national average: - Western Development Commission. New data showing the travel to work patterns of workers in Galway should be used to inform future transport planning decisions and to promote the area as an enterprise location. That’s according to a new report from the Western Development Commission (WDC) which analyses previously un-released Census data to present an in-depth study of travel patterns into Galway city. Speaking at the launch of the report, Lisa McAllister, Chief Executive of the WDC said, “This is very valuable information as it provides robust analysis of key trends and identifies strong transport patterns. It will be of particular value to policy-makers so that future decisions about regional transport infrastructure and enterprise location are based on solid data. “The report illustrates some interesting findings such as the fact that the number of people commuting to Galway city from the north of the county, for example from the Tuam labour catchment, is much greater than the number commuting to Galway city from the south; the Gort labour catchment. This shows that there will be greater demand for public transport services into the city from the north of the county and, in our opinion, strengthens the case for the next stage of the Western Rail Corridor from Athenry to Tuam and on to Claremorris,” she added. The report, ‘Travel to Work and Labour Catchments in the Western Region’, highlights the extensive Galway city labour catchment and portrays the labour supply available around Galway city. The WDC says that it provides evidence-based analysis that should be used to inform regional policy-making, and that it will be an important source of information for employers, state development agencies and local and regional authorities. Ms. Mc Allister said that while there has been a lot of debate on commuting patterns in the Dublin Area, up to now there has been relatively little knowledge of local and regional commuting patterns in the West of Ireland. “This report fills that gap and provides a much better understanding of where people live and work as well as the type of work that people do, all of which can better inform policy for enterprise location, as well as identifying education and training needs and transport requirements,” she said. Deirdre Frost, Policy Analyst at the WDC who worked on the report said, “The Galway city labour catchment covers the county and extends into south county Mayo and north county Clare. It is from this area that Galway city draws most of its labour supply. We know that people are willing to drive lengthy distances to access employment in Galway city. For example the report notes that 230 people commuted from the Castlebar labour catchment to Galway city to work,” Ms Frost added. Ms Frost noted, “Over the last decade, travel to work patterns changed considerably and when we think back to the height of the Celtic Tiger one of the very obvious signs in Galway was long traffic queues at peak hours on all the city’s approach roads. This new data presents an opportunity to inform future transport planning decisions so that we do not revert to long tail backs as the economy recovers.” It also found that the age profile of the Galway city labour catchment is one of the youngest in the Western Region and that workers living in the Galway city labour catchment have a higher level of education than the national average. She concluded, “We welcome the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) decision to release the data for this study which shows that the Western Region has huge potential to be a regionally smart economy that will help foster Ireland’s return to economic growth.” Ends Background Information This present report identifies 45 labour catchments in the Western Region (counties Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway and Clare) and provides a detailed labour market profile for seven towns; the largest town in each of the seven counties which comprise the Western Region; Galway, Ennis, Sligo, Letterkenny, Castlebar, Roscommon and Carrick-on-Shannon.
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