Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. There are two separate sources for funding of cycling infrastructure within my Department. The tourism development division provides funding for greenway construction while the public transport investment division provides funding to the National Transport Authority, NTA, for the provision of cycling infrastructure, including greenways, within the greater Dublin area and the regional cities of Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway.

I have secured a substantial increase in funding for all forms of cycling and walking infrastructure investment over the coming years. This includes €110 million specifically dedicated to cycling and walking infrastructure in our major urban areas; €135 million for sustainable urban transport measures; and €750 million towards the BusConnects programme in Dublin, which will include the delivery of around 200 km of segregated cycling lanes, where possible.

I am also providing €53 million to support the development of new greenways up to 2021 in more rural areas, in line with the greenways strategy published earlier this year.

As can be seen, these are multi-annual capital expenditure programmes which will positively assist with the better development and provision of cycling and walking infrastructure across the State.

In addition to these infrastructure measures, my Department also provides funding to the NTA in relation to behavioural change programmes and to Cycling Ireland to develop the national cycle training standard Cycle Right, which was first rolled out in January 2017 and is expected to have trained approximately 20,000 primary school students this year.

In relation to cycling facilities specifically, the NTA has statutory responsibility to secure or provide cycling infrastructure in the State. I have, therefore, referred the Deputy's question to the NTA for a more detailed reply.

With regard to the funding provided from my tourism development division, in 2018, €3,650,000 was allocated for greenways. As there was no open funding call at the time, and there were no new projects commencing this year, this allocation was for ongoing projects that were funded by my Department in previous years. To date, €3,256,402 of this allocation has been spent in 2018.

See this speech in context