Mr. Kevin Baker:

Deputy MacSharry's questions related to public transport and cycling. There are three ways that cycling and public transport can connect, but I will first talk about why it is important. Cycling is great for local trips but there is obviously a limit to the distance one can get a bike and an e-bike pushes that limit further. For many people, connecting a bike onto public transport is a fantastic way of travelling. It has many of the benefits of a car, in that it can go from point to point, but with the speed benefits of cycling and the distance benefits of public transport.

Taking a bike on the train is still very difficult on Irish Rail because many intercity trains do not have enough space on them to take bikes. We hear of many people who are trying to get to the Waterford greenway or the Westport greenway from Dublin and who want to take their bikes on the train, but it always proves impossible because it is booked out and oversubscribed.

Allowing bikes on trains in tight urban areas is probably not something we want to pursue too far because our public transport is creaking at the seams and there is not really space for bikes on commuter and DART trains. In urban areas, we should be looking at high-quality bike parking at public transport hubs so one can cycle to the bus or train station and continue one's journey on the bus or train. Bike sharing is also an option, such as the dublinbikes scheme and the bike systems in Cork and Limerick. Those allow people to share bikes at the other end of their journeys.

There will be opportunities in the many upcoming public transport infrastructure projects to ensure good cycling integration. MetroLink is a prime example. It will be a fantastic metro system if we build it in 2027 and it will be an opportunity, particularly in the Swords area, for people to cycle to the metro stations and then continue into town. The metro will only serve about half of Swords but it will only be a ten-minute cycle from the other side of Swords to the metro station. It is an ideal connection if we put in enough high-quality bike parking. We see this working in Dublin.

Many people in the Ballinteer area cycle to the Luas station in Dundrum to get into town because they do not have a good bus route and are about a 30-minute walk from the Luas. It is a five or ten-minute cycle down the hill and there is good, segregated cycling infrastructure. We cannot get Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to put in enough bike parking at that station. Every time more bike parking is put in, it fills up within a month or two.