John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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212. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the spending on cycling in each of the years 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018 as a proportion of spending on transport in general. [41399/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As the Deputy is aware, over the period 2018 to 2021, we will invest €110 million specifically for Cycling/Walking investment in our major cities, together with €135 million for Sustainable Urban Transport, a programme which encompasses a range of initiatives to improve urban transport including for cyclists and pedestrians. Alongside this, our considerable planned investment in the bus system through the new BusConnects programme - initially in Dublin and then followed by other cities - will also support the construction of, where possible, segregated cycle lanes along the improved bus corridors; the aim in Dublin is to deliver around 200 kilometres of quality cycling facilities as part of the bus upgrade. Beyond these urban initiatives, the Deputy will be aware that I have also allocated €53 million to support the development of new Greenways in line with the recently published Greenways Strategy.

The Deputy may be aware that investment in cycling infrastructure over the period 2015 to 2017 was actually delivered under a number of different programmes and schemes, namely the Smarter Travel Programme, Sustainable Transport Measures Grants (STMG) Programme and the Regional Cities Programme.

Projects funded under the Smarter Travel Programme involved integrated initiatives across a number of aspects of active/smarter travel and incorporated measures such as investment in cycle lanes, bike parking, footpaths, traffic calming measures, shared streets and other interventions that encourage and support modal shift to walking and cycling.

In addition since 2010 my Department has also provided funding to the National Transport Authority (NTA) under the Sustainable Transport Measures Grants (STMG) Programme and the Regional Cities Programme to implement sustainable transport projects, including providing cycling infrastructure, in the Greater Dublin Area and the regional cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

Given the overarching scope of these programmes, it is not possible to isolate specific expenditure on cycling infrastructure over the period in question.