Mr. Kevin Baker:

The first step is that we need to realise the massive benefits and for everyone to believe in them. There is still a large number of people who do not believe that cycling can be a large part of the transport solution throughout Ireland, which it absolutely can be. We only need to look at other countries to see the potential of cycling and the benefits it can bring. This is definitely one of the issues. With regard to delivering projects, the Royal Canal project received planning permission in late 2015 but most of it has not started construction. The delays include staff being removed from the project to work on the Luas cross city, getting a licence from Irish Rail, getting a licence from Waterways Ireland because it owns the canal route, and removing Japanese knotweed and drug paraphernalia. Then we had to redesign the bridge over the Irish Rail line because it might need to be double tracked as part of DART expansion. In these tight urban areas sometimes these projects can be very complicated. At the same time, we are constantly chasing the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council to keep these projects moving. I honestly believe that if we were not doing this, the projects would not be anywhere near as far along as they are, even though many of them are still nowhere.