Dr. Damien Ó Tuama:

I am grateful for the invitation. Is mise an comhordaitheoir rothaíochta náisiúnta le Cyclist.ie. Gabhaim buíochas as ucht an gcuireadh teacht anseo inniu. I am the national cycling co-ordinator with Cyclist.ie, the Irish Cycling Advocacy Network, which is the umbrella body of cycle campaigning in Ireland. The network comprises 25 groups and is a mixture of urban groups, rural groups and greenway groups stretching from the Inishowen peninsula down to Clonakilty, west Kerry, Connemara and everywhere in between, so we have all the corners covered. We are the member for Ireland of the European Cyclists’ Federation, which advocates at a European level at the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

Our vision is that cycling becomes a normal part of everyday life for all ages and abilities in Ireland in a way that it is in many other European countries. For every different type of trip, whether cycling to school or college, heading to work, going to sports training and matches, going shopping or going to cultural events or other leisure and recreation outings, we cover all the different types of cycling. We are particularly conscious that in many parts of Ireland, particularly rural Ireland, the number of children cycling to school has fallen off a cliff in the past 30 years. For example, in 1986, when I was in secondary school myself, more than 19,000 girls cycled to secondary school, whereas according to the most recent census data from 2016, only 694 secondary school girls were cycling to school and more than 2,000 were driving themselves to school. It is shocking. Something is seriously amiss.

On the regulatory side, we welcome the new regulation regarding the dangerous overtaking of cyclists announced on 11 November 2019 by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross. We are cautiously optimistic there will be serious and systematic enforcement of the new regulations by An Garda Síochána. The impact the new laws will have on driver behaviour is critically linked to the enforcement regime to be employed by the Garda.

We sent a detailed submission to the committee at the beginning of October. The main point is that the proper resourcing and development of cycling nationally, as proposed in many Government strategies, can have wide-ranging positive impacts on many aspects of society. Increased everyday cycling levels will improve national health and well-being, including mental health. We are very conscious that one in four children and six in ten adults are currently obese or overweight, as noted in the Healthy Ireland obesity policy in 2016. Increased everyday cycling levels will also provide an improved public environment in villages, towns and cities throughout the country and, critically, they will support national competitiveness by reducing congestion.

We know from a report published a number of years ago that congestion in the greater Dublin area currently costs €350 million per year. Increased cycling also supports local economies and increases tourism. Critically, it will also support Ireland meeting its climate change targets as the transport sector currently accounts for approximately 20% of our carbon emissions.

The €12.6 million allocated for cycling in 2018 is equivalent to approximately 1% of the total transport budget. This should be increased tenfold in order to bring Ireland’s cycling infrastructure and investment into line with that of our EU neighbours and realise other broad societal benefits. Furthermore, investment in cycling provides generously high rates of return on investment compared with other public transport investments. Cyclist.iecalls on the Government to realise these economic and social benefits by increasing, significantly and immediately, the funding allocated to cycling both as a transport mode and a leisure activity. We call on the Government to follow its own recommendation and invest a minimum of 10% of the capital budget for land transport in cycling from 2020.

We recommend a few areas on which cycling funding should be spent. First is the provision of high-quality cycling infrastructure, which is being developed across Europe. Cities such as Brussels, to which many Members travel regularly, Paris and London were dominated by car traffic over the last five decades. They have been transformed in the past ten years by the provision of high-quality infrastructure, pedestrianisation and taking cars out of the city centre. Even Paris's big, hostile roundabouts are being converted to become pedestrian and cycle friendly. We see e-bikes as an important part of the future of mobility and a subsidy should be provided for purchasing them. There might be competition between Cork, Drogheda and Kinsale to become the e-bike capital of Ireland or even Europe. E-bikes have huge potential. It is also essential that we set up a national cycling office in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. It does not have one at the moment, leaving a big gap in the infrastructure to create change. Many other interventions could be introduced to make cycling safe and normal, such as contraflow arrangements for cyclists, which are very common in Brussels; good traffic-free links to sports grounds, GAA pitches, stadiums, towns and suburbs; and speed enforcement.

On my behalf and on behalf of Ms Forsythe and cyclist.ie, I thank the Deputies and Senators for their attention. We are happy to answer any questions from the committee.