Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Kelly, who always makes a very valuable contribution, for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to outline this Government's commitment to the development of a world class national cycling network for Ireland. I know the Fáilte Ireland figures, to which the Senator referred, in regard to tourism and there is some work to be done, although there has been some progress over the past number of years.

Domestically, cycling, as an activity, has gone through the roof. The number of people cycling for leisure and tourism purposes is phenomenal. One does not even need to see the statistics as anyone travelling around the country can see that. Trying to build cycling more into people's lives as regards their commute to school and work is a critical component which I want to push as well, in particular given that 400,000 people travel 4 km or less to work each day. From a tourism point of view, developing the infrastructure, about which the Senator spoke, is the critical issue.

The suggestion to establish a working group to oversee the delivery of cycling infrastructure has merit and has been the subject of recent discussion within my Department.

I would first like to advise Senator Kelly of the national trails advisory committee, which does some of this work. This committee, which operates as a sub-committee of the Irish Sports Council, includes representatives from a number of agencies and bodies involved in recreational trail development in Ireland. Those represented include my Department, Coillte, Cycling Ireland, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Fáilte Ireland, National Trails Office, the Irish Local Development Company Network and Waterways Ireland among many others. The functions of the committee are to oversee the implementation of the Irish trails strategy and to achieve agreement on a harmonised approach to certain elements of trail provision. The committee meets on a regular basis and is in the process of developing guidelines for the development of cycle infrastructure in Ireland. To date, the committee's work has been largely within the context of delivering on the Irish trails strategy but has allowed for information sharing on the broader issues of cycle infrastructure development in Ireland.

As the Senator knows, the demand for off-road cycle infrastructure has increased dramatically in recent years, particularly with the phenomenal success of the greenway in Mayo. This is apparent from the number of applications submitted to my Department by local authorities under the recent national cycle network funding call 2014-2016. A total of €6.5 million has been set aside for the duration of this programme to deliver a small number of greenway projects and 38 proposals were submitted from 28 authorities. I have visited many of the projects and would love to fund them all. Some of them are fantastic but we just cannot fund all of them.

There is good reason for this interest. Cycle projects, particularly off-road projects, are popular with local authorities and the general population because of the following: they are well-received and promoted by local communities; they are easy to provide from a construction perspective; and capable of providing significant benefits in line with many cross-cutting policies such as community, recreation, health, transport and tourism. They create jobs too in their construction and maintenance and through the services provided for them. I am conscious too that cycling infrastructure is being considered and delivered by several Departments and agencies across several funding programmes. This needs to be addressed too. There may even be potential for future co-funding with our European partners under the next INTERREG scheme and, once finalised, the next European regional development fund, ERDF, operational programme 2014 to 2020.

Given the ongoing demand for such projects, there may be some merit in broadening the scope of the existing cross-sectoral work through a high level group, which would formulate an agreed and consistent approach to delivering cycling infrastructure in line with the national cycle policy. Such a group would include many of the aforementioned from the national trails advisory committee as well as the National Transport Authority and the National Roads Authority. It is very much along the lines of the Senator's suggestion. The programme for Government provides for the targeting of available resources on developing and co-ordinating niche tourism products and activity packages including continued investment in the national cycle policy. A key task for any group established would be to ensure that there is a long-term vision in place that recognises the importance of investing in projects which have the potential to be branded collectively as a national product. I have no doubt that the existing cooperation between all public authorities, community groups and companies will continue into the future and we can look forward to many diverse off-road trails and cycle ways opening up around the country in the coming years.

In this context, I am very open to considering the best mechanisms for delivering such co-operation because I believe that strategic investment now will deliver returns in a multitude of ways and will make a significant contribution to our long-term goals for sustainable travel and transport. I will take the Senator's suggestion, which I welcome, and look on it positively and will return to him soon to report on the actions I will take to achieve the goals that we share.