Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The bid started before my time with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. Our Department received correspondence from the Department in the North last summer saying that they did not really want to go ahead with the bid. They could not go ahead with it really because the political direction was not there. Had that letter not arrived I would have had engagements in Paris with representatives of the Tour de France and other people who were interested. I met the Minister for sport there as well and I said to her that we had an interest in it. So we are always interested in pursuing this.

I want to comment about all the major events.

The bed nights and tourism benefit are important but I am putting a renewed emphasis on sporting participation benefits from it as well. Cycling really offers that. I am glad to say that we were in a position with Sport Ireland this year to fund the Rás Tailteann and Rás na mBan with €60,000, which is a significant boost to each of those races. We gave equal funding to both for the first time. There has been a great welcome for that in the cycling community. The events they put on are fantastic. I was really glad that the Department and Sport Ireland could assist with that this year.