Mr. Fabian Küster:

Yes, that is fine. I thank the committee for the invitation. It is a pleasure and honour to be here. I want to kick off my presentation by giving some context to where we are with levels of cycling in Europe. I will refer to a chart from a 2014 Eurobarometer survey question which asked people which mode of transport they used most often on a typical day. The European average for the use of bicycles was 8%, while Ireland's rate stood at 2%. The European champion in this regard was the Netherlands at 36%. There is a factor of 1:18 between Ireland and the Netherlands. While there is a considerable margin of error in these data, we all agree, as Dr. Aldred already mentioned, that there is much unrealised potential here in Ireland to grow cycling.

An excellent occasion on which to make that commitment to grow cycling would have been in the draft national energy and climate plan, NECP, which member states had to submit by the end of 2018 to the European Commission. We analysed those 28 draft NECPs and we have come to the conclusion that Ireland missed an opportunity to position cycling better as an effective tool to help decarbonise the transport sector. Ireland is obviously in good company in that regard. Many countries did not score very well but it was still a missed opportunity. We also looked at Ireland's national climate plan, which I understand came out just last week. The picture in that context is much better for cycling. I was particularly intrigued by action No. 97 to commence full implementation of the national cycling policy framework.

Action No. 97 is listed in the annexe of actions to the national climate plan. One sentence in particular caught my attention. It is the last sentence in that section and states "Current transport infrastructure programmes to immediately be revised to achieve at least 10% expenditure on facilitating cycling." That really would be a game changer if 10% of transport investment was in cycling. I will put this in context. The European champion, the Netherlands, invests about 7% so Ireland would go above that level. The Netherlands, however, has been investing at that rate for many years. The country started investing in cycling some 40 years ago and never went below a 15% cycling mode share. It has always had a better starting point. It would still, however, be a major step in the right direction if Ireland did make this choice.

I also want to applaud Ireland on its plans to go electric. There is one major omission in the strategy, however, and that is leaving out the electric bicycle, e-bike. We know the e-bike has a certain element of comfort, it brings more people to cycling and often over longer distances. It opens up opportunities for commuters, for the elderly, for people who are less fit and for people living in hilly areas. If one vehicle has the potential to substitute for car trips it is the e-bike, certainly in areas where there is poor public transport coverage. That is also the case for freight deliveries in cities. The cargo e-bike is a great solution for first and last-mile deliveries.

In my submission, there is a chart which shows the rapid development of the e-bike market. In 2017, more than 2 million e-bikes were sold in the EU. There was an average growth rate of 22% between 2015 and 2017. Were that trend to continue for the next 11 years, we would see sales of 13 million units in 2030 alone. There is, therefore, huge potential for e-bikes across Europe. Why is the market growing? One reason is that some member states have given financial incentives for e-bikes. France, for example, introduced a €200 purchase subsidy and the sales figures between 2016 and 2017 almost doubled as a result. An ex-postanalysis was also carried out with people who bought e-bikes and it was found that 61% of new e-bike trips replaced car trips. There is major potential here to get people out of their cars.

I also understand that Irish employees can get a bicycle from their employer every five years and that this policy is fiscally stimulated. If I am informed correctly, however, there is a cap on the price of the bicycle, which is set at €1,000. That effectively excludes e-bikes. It would be an idea to raise that cap. If Ireland wants to go that extra mile, it might consider something like what has been done in Belgium. A cycle allowance has been introduced there for commuters. The employer can pay the employee 23 cent tax free for every kilometre cycled to and from work. To give an example, I live about 7 km from where I work and I get about €60 to €70, tax free, every month from my employer. I think that is a nice stimulus. Cycling to work has been increasing by more than 40% over the past 12 years in Belgium.

As for my third recommendation, e-bikes are expensive and need to be parked easily and safely. It is crucial to get this piece of infrastructure right. When we did a European comparative analysis of how member states are regulating off-street bicycle parking, we found that six member states have minimum national laws in place whereas Ireland merely has non-binding guidelines. Perhaps Ireland could be inspired by what other member states have been doing in this regard. I will conclude on that note. I think Ireland has done a good job with its climate action plan but there is room for improvement nonetheless.