Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

An obvious extension of the initiative would be to invite the Tour de France to come to Ireland, as we did very successfully in 1998. It passed through Dublin and into counties Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford and Cork. It was a huge success. The tour has a global audience each year of 1 billion people. It would be an obvious extension of the EuroVelo 1 initiative.

When I was Mayor of Clare, 18 months ago, I proposed the idea at a council meeting. Like many council motions, we believed that it had been buried in the annals of the council, never to be seen again.

We subsequently discovered it had gone to the Minister's Department and was being investigated as a viable headline tourism option for the coming years.

I ask that the Minister take up the cudgels on this matter. It is a fabulous opportunity. We have lost out on European Championship football games in Dublin this year. Some of these issues are beyond our control but we need to strategise beyond the Covid crisis. We need to look at our natural assets in the west, build on the success of the Wild Atlantic Way and exploit all the wonderful possibilities of EuroVelo 1. I urge the Minister to try to bring the Tour de France to this country in the coming years. The natural route for it would be to follow the Wild Atlantic Way and incorporate EuroVelo 1. As a Clare citizen, I look forward to welcoming the competitors along the beautiful roads of east and west Clare.

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