Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the various groups present. I listened to their requests and I agree with them. They referred to the Netherlands. We must acknowledge that the Netherlands is a lowland country. It had to rebuild after wars so it had a chance to get infrastructure in place. In this country, we have narrow roads and streets and maybe we are trying to do a rushed job because other issues are kicking in, for example, the need to take action on climate change.

There are three categories of cyclists, namely, those who cycle to work, recreational cyclists who use the roads mainly at weekends and athletes who are competing. Trying to facilitate each of those categories is where the problem arises. The biggest concern is that we are rushing. I cycled to national school and then I went to boarding school.

I cycled afterwards. I have taken part in a 180 km charity cycle. I love cycling but we need patience. I agree with our guests that children do not cycle to school. I suppose it is because of the mindset of the parents due to security and other reasons. I fully support cycling getting funding and I agree with our guests regarding 10% of funding going towards cycling. How do we implement it without disenfranchising everyone, however? One see people cycling four abreast. I have concerns about cyclists wearing ear plugs. We do not know whether they know that vehicles are behind them or whether they are switched on to what is behind them.

Roads constitute the big problem in my part of the country. I appreciate health and safety but the implementation of the new laws could create problems. Unless we shut down more roads and say that some roads are reserved for cyclists while others are just for cars and lorries, we will have a problem in rural Ireland until more greenways are built.