Dr. Tadhg O'Mahony:

I thank Deputy Devlin. Specifically on the Dublin bikes scheme and car sharing, car sharing has usually been private so local authorities can assist in support of it but in practice it has been more private. The Dublin bikes scheme is a little bit different from the schemes in other European countries because we have basically required it to pay for itself. If we look at the emissions reduction per euro spent on it, it is very low. It has all sorts of public good benefits because cars are taken off the road and public health is improved. It is a very cheap way of getting around. I was quite sceptical of it at the time. I remember people saying they expected the bikes to end up in the Grand Canal. It has been fantastically successful and must be applauded, and it needs to be extended.

Many of these measures, and this is also true of rail, and Mr. Cussen mentioned serviced sites and achieving compact growth, have a cost element. We need to look at what these potential costs are and come up with innovative arrangements to finance them. Finance is very important and was given a section of the transport chapter of the EPA's report. I agree with the Deputy 100% that we should be looking at regionalising a bike share scheme and pushing car share schemes. They are very sensible measures that do not have a huge financial or fiscal footprint but in some cases we may need to look at whether it is possible to give more public subvention or whether we can look at innovative financing arrangements. It is also important that there is leadership from politicians to push and say that it is hugely beneficial to the public good and that they want it for the people of wider Dublin, Limerick or Cork. We must ask whether we can push this through, such as through drawing down new funding to support walking and cycling.