Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Approximately 25 years ago, Mike Curtis died on Merrion Square in Dublin. He was on his bike, was flattened and killed. A lot of us started campaigning then to try to make Dublin a cycling city. It is deeply shocking for anyone with a keen interest in cycling to look at what has happened here in the last few months. On 12 February, Ms Tonya McEvoy, a member of the Orwell Wheelers cycling club was knocked down and killed in Kildare. On 12 March, Daragh Ryan was knocked off his bike and killed on Conyngham Road, a well recognised black spot - we having been talking about these black spots for a long time - near the Phoenix Park. Last Friday, Paul Hannon was knocked down and killed on Patrick Street, while last Sunday, Des Butler, was killed on his bike in Bunratty. Last Monday, a young woman was knocked down at the roundabout on Templeville Road and flattened under a truck.

We have been campaigning for 25 years to try to make this city safe for cycling. It should be one of the best cycling cities in the world because it is flat and relatively dry. Cycling is the quickest, best, most social and healthiest way of getting around. Dublin should be like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. My party and others have been working on this matter for all of that time, making very little progress but continuing to push the idea. We set out the smarter travel plan in 2009 and a plan for the overall network in 2011. We are at a point now where we really are ready to go and make this a safe cycling city. This is achievable, doable and it is a decision for here and now.

There are some significant routes ready to be built, including the Clontarf cycle route, which is a two way route from Clontarf all the way into town. Huge numbers of cyclists use that route every morning but it is lethally dangerous at present. The Liffey cycle route is a two-way cycle track right along the river which would transform how this city works. There is another project ready to go for College Green that will create a safe civic space and turn the whole city centre around in terms of how it works. We have greenway routes that would not only work as commuting routes but would also provide incredible benefits for the city. One such route runs along the seafront from Sutton to Sandycove. It is ready to go but investment is required. We need big money to make this happen, although not big in comparison to the money needed for a motorway. It would cost the equivalent of 1 km of motorway to develop most of these projects. The funding requirement is big in the context of what we have spent on cycling to date. Other projects include the Dodder greenway, the Royal Canal greenway and the Santry river greenway. These are all projects that we have been working on for 20 years.

We have the designs ready to go but the shocking reality at this time, when we need capacity solutions to our transport system and cycling infrastructure to be provided more quickly to cater for the significant volume of cyclists just trying to get back on their bikes, which could really tackle Dublin's traffic problems and, more than anything else, make the city safe, the capital budget for cycling is being slashed year in, year out. It fell by 21% last year. There is a projected 18% fall this year.

The Minister has a responsibility in this regard. After 25 years of campaigning, the Minister must realise this investment is more important and significant than any other transport investment we could make. In the first instance, it would protect and save lives. There was a recent spike, involving three deaths in three weeks. We have to respond to that by making the city safe.

Second, to make the city work, we have no capacity solutions equivalent to those cycling can provide for the same expenditure. In this regard, one should consider the numbers. When we provide high-quality facilities, as on the Grand Canal route, thousands of people take to cycling. We should really go for it now and make a decision on the six or seven key routes. They have to be funded now. The money has to be provided now or else we will face 25 more years of not having what we could have in Dublin. Dublin could be a safe, an efficient and a brilliant city in which to cycle. Will the Minister provide the money? Will he allocate the money that the Dublin Cycling Campaign and others are calling for to make the city safe and to make it work?

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