Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the matter. I apologise for missing the speech made by the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, but I have read it and it contains a lot of positive content. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy McGinley, to the House again.

There has been ¤7 million provided for cycle lanes to enhance and develop a culture for cycling here which is most welcome. Being parochial, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, for providing ¤450,000 to create and build a cycle lane between Ennistymon and Lahinch. I am delighted to advise him that Clare County Council is at an advanced stage in terms of small bits of land being acquisitioned as required. I hope that the scheme will make significant progress towards the end of the year.

Tourist areas will benefit from creating and fostering a cycling culture. We can look at what has been achieved in Mayo and the success that the Government and the local authority in Mayo have had in creating the cycleway or greenway between Westport and Achill. Mayo now has a distinct advantage when attracting a certain type of visitor, a health conscious visitor, who wants to do something healthy such as walking and cycling. Other European countries place a much greater emphasis on both pursuits. Germans, in particular, are health conscious and when they come to Ireland or holiday here they want to do healthy things and the ¤7 million investment will be repaid in quadruple and quickly.

In County Clare we hope to develop a positive, fresh, sustainable and healthy tourism market. With the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher and the buy-in by the local authority, landowners, farmers and so on, a number of green walkways are being developed around the Burren. That, together with the organic farming at Burrenbeo, all work towards the type of Ireland that we can sell to tourists successfully. I hope that walkways and cycleways will be established in north Clare. I hope that they will create a link between places like Doolin, the Cliffs of Moher, Liscannor, Lahinch and Ennistymon. We can use them to our advantage in terms of marketing the product. The one natural resource that we have is our landscape, scenary and fresh air which gives us a competitive advantage. We do not have oil rigs - at least we do not have them in Clare. As we do not have gasfields, gold, silver, zinc or any of those resources, we must play to our strengths. Our strength is the environment and its unusual and unique landscape. If we can get people onto bikes then there will be a significant benefit to be gained.

I have read the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly's speech and his proposals for smarter transport are innovative. In terms of developing public transport, we want to see more people using public transport as opposed to motor cars. Its biggest problem is reliability and commuters want to know when buses are delayed and when they will arrive.