Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will outline in tabular form a summary of each application received from local authorities in County Mayo to construct greenways under the National Cycle Initiative or any other initiative within his Department or any agency thereof, to include a summary of each proposal, the amount of money requested, the current status of the application and for those applications under consideration, when a decision will be made and for those turned down, the reason they were turned down; and his views on the operation and management of the SDU [41708/12]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Between 2009 and 2011 Mayo County Council received €5.1m in co-funding from the Department of Transport, Fáilte Ireland and the former Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for the delivery of the Great Western Greenway. Over the same period they received funding of €620,000 from my Department for the development of a Greenway within Westport Town.

In 2012 the National Cycle Network funding scheme was launched. Mayo County Council submitted only one proposal under this funding scheme, for a Greenway route in Castlebar. This project requested €725,000, and following a competitive process has been allocated this amount.

Also in 2012 Mayo County Council applied to my Department under the Active Travel Towns Programme for €225,000 for the town of Ballina to construct an 8.8km leisure cycling and walking loop route (Belleek Loop), and for €60,000 for the town of Louisburgh to provide a 1km Greenway link by upgrading an old disused off road track between Old Head and the town. There was considerable interest in the programme and significantly more proposals were submitted than funding was available. Both proposals were unsuccessful in securing funding.  An assessment panel considered all the applications submitted and selected those applications which best met the objectives outlined in the funding call. The Belleek Loop proposal was considered worthwhile in its support for active travel, leisure cycling and tourism, however, the assessment panel considered that it lacked sufficient focus on urban modal shift and focused instead to a great degree on leisure cycling. It therefore did not fully meet with the objectives of the Active Travel Towns programme and was not ranked high enough for inclusion in the final selection. The Louisburgh Greenway proposal was ruled out because the population size of the town fell outside the terms set for the programme.

In addition to the above, it should also be noted that Westport Town is a Smarter Travel Area (along with Limerick City and Dungarvan) and that significant on-going investment in sustainable transport infrastructure, including Greenways, is taking place in these towns.  

There are currently no funding streams open within the Department suited to applications for Greenway route development, and therefore no such applications being considered.

The table below summarises funding for Greenway type infrastructure within Co. Mayo from my Department. Fáilte Ireland are currently funding two significant Greenway projects, linking into the Great Western Greenway, and I understand they have further applications from Mayo County Council seeking funding to construct Greenways.  Accordingly, I have referred the Deputy’s question to Fáilte Ireland for direct reply.  Please advise my private office if you do not receive a reply within 10 working days.