John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is the cycling project office that terrifies me, given the record of the National Transport Authority in attempting to deliver the other landmark project within Project Ireland 2040, namely, BusConnects, but that is for another day. The Minister has set a target of the purchase of 1 million e-cars and e-vehicles by 2030, which is incredibly ambitious. However, he has set no target for the purchase of e-bikes. There are no details in the climate action plan of the incentives that might be provided for employers to encourage employees to switch from cars to bikes and local authorities to provide basic facilities. There is only one municipal bike park in this city. I will quote from an article in The Guardianwhich was represented at the Velo-city conference. The article states: "What happened to the place once spoken of as "the great hope for emerging cycling cities"?" It only goes back as far as 2013 when, apparently, Dublin was ranked among the top 20 bike-friendly cities, but it has fallen off what is known as the Copenhagen index since. All of the Project Ireland 2040 projects are exactly that. The Minister spoke about what would be done by 2035. What will we do tomorrow? The Minister read and listened to the headlines this morning about the crisis this city was facing from noxious emissions on the M50, in coming out of the port tunnel and the city's core. He has said nothing to me today, which is normal in his responses, about what can be done in the next 12 or 18 months to improve the quality of life and air quality in the city, not by 2035 or 2040 but for those who are alive now and want to live a healthy life.

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