Galway County Council has given the go ahead for the next phase of works on the expansion of Ros a Mhíl harbour, Galway Daily said .
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been granted planning permission for work on a new harbour area north of the existing facilities.
The full development, when completed, will create 77 berths, of which 63 will be standard berths for boats up to 8m in length, and 14 will be heavy duty berths for 8-11m vessels.
According to Galway Daily, the small craft harbour will be made from floating pontoon units designed to rise and fall with the tide, and restrained with steel piles driven into the seabed.
In total, the Department plans to dredge or blast approximately 18,400m³ of soft material and bedrock, with an area of foreshore to be permanently reclaimed to protect the access road.
Also, improvement will be made to the local access road, and 40 additional car parking spaces will be added to account for increased traffic.