Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Senator Cassells. We will take three minutes each. I am very happy to support this motion, which Senators Kyne and Buttimer and the Fine Gael group have tabled. There is almost nothing to object to in it. It is all very positive. I had not even considered it a motion just on public transport, which is what the screen is telling us it is, because it is not really just about public transport. It also refers to active travel, although not enough, which is why I am speaking.

I would have liked it to say a little bit more about cycling. I happen to be one of those. Senator Higgins also often cycles. Perhaps other Members also do. It is not necessarily workable in rural areas where people are travelling long distances but an awful lot of journeys in cities, particularly in compact cities such as the Minister of State's city of Galway, for which people think they have to get in their cars, could be done on a bike. It came as a revelation to Senator Buttimer at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications with TII and the NTA, that I was elected Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown's cycling champion approximately ten years ago. That was not because I was any good at it. I was just supposed to promote cycling. Other people got other positions and that was the one I got.