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HUNDREDS OF CYCLISTS gathered in Dublin this evening to call for more funds to support the country’s cycling infrastructure.
The demonstration, which was organised by the Dublin Cycling Campaign (DCC), began at Government Buildings on Merrion Square, weaved slowly around Stephen’s Green, and stopping outside the Department of Transport on Leeson Lane in the south city centre.
DCC said that the protest was being held to draw attention to the fact that “cycling continues to get the crumbs at the table when it comes to overall national transport spend”.
The crowd, made up of families, working professionals, and public representatives, chanted ‘ten per cent’ – referring to the funding target they want increased – from the current 0.5%.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan took part in the protest, while the Green’s Ciaran Cuffe gave a rousing speech outside the Department of Transport to the crowd, who sang:
Keep cyclists alive, alive alive-oh.
‘Crumbs at the table’
DCC cites the fact that of the near €10 billion earmarked for transport in the Government’s Capital Investment Plan (CIP) for the next five years, just €100 million has been allocated to so-called ‘active travel’, or sustainable transport such as cycling and walking.
Damien Ó Tuama, national cycling co-ordinator with Cyclist.ie, the Irish cycling advocacy network, says that the low-level of funding is the “overarching problem”.
“If you don’t have money allocated to cycling, nothing will happen, that’s what it comes down to,” he says.
“Securing funding is what we’re after,” he adds, saying the government needs to make clear where it stands with regard to the 2009 national cycling framework “which shows how you transition from where we are to a situation where everyone cycles all the time”.
We’re talking cycling training, cycle-friendly road design, driver behaviour moderation, all these kinds of things.
The protest’s organisers are expecting at least 500 cyclists to attend this evening, with speakers such as Ó Tuama himself and Dublin councillors Andrew Montague and Alice Mary Higgins set to give the crowd their two cents.
“With the most recent government we’re not sure what type of priority they’re giving to cycling,” Ó Tuama says.
You can’t just ditch decades-long plans like this.
The single largest investment in the CIP regarding transport is the construction of Metro North, the new rail line between St Stephen’s Green in Dublin city to Dublin Airport, which is estimated to cost in the region of €2.4 billion.
€6 billion meanwhile has been allocated to improving the national roads network.
With reporting from Darragh Peter Murphy
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Good dog!!
@shellakybooky: Should have set the dogs on him full stop……he might think twice doing it again when he sees half his legs are gone…..
@shellakybooky: The gardai have confirmed that he is indeed a good boy, yes he is, yes he is.
@shellakybooky: give that dog a bone
Probably 150 previous convictions and get off with a warning.
@Noel Barnes: I don’t think so considering the Garda vehicle was rammed. A nice sentence to follow.
@Peter D W Clancy: 3 year sentence with 18 months suspended possibly. Our justice system is very lenient in the majority of cases.
@Cork Truck Driver: That is a much greater sentence than this old chestnut: “get off with a warning”, which is trotted out over and over again online by people for some reason or another.
Laser, henceforth known as the goodest boy, was rewarded with a steak and many belly rubs.
@Terrence Edwards: best boy
ramming a Garda squad car ,or any car deliberately should be treated as attempted murder -especially an attack on members of our national police force. well done to doggy Laser &all the guards involved in this operation. It’s over to the DPP &the courts now &hopefully they’ll do their jobs well too &get this thug off our streets but don’t anyone hold your breath. .the judge will probably recommend him for a nobel peace prize
@Dean Anderson: The getaway car was abandoned, so either it was a stolen vehicle or one of the hundreds of older, untaxed & uninsured cars left littering the cities & countryside.
Cannot understand why the motor taxation service do not pursue the registered owners of vehicles for unpaid road tax, & seize them if they are not renewed.
Then these cars would not be available for criminal use, joy riding by youths, save society a lot of grief ,law enforcement time & cost.
As for cost, the Motor Insurers Bureau also bears the cost of uninsured vehicle damages, & adds that to to policy premiums of compliant drivers.
It is a disgraceful example of poor & lazy state administration, which is content to operate on a cheque in the post culture, not bothering to run it properly.
Second time this year!
@David Carroll: lol, quality !
@David Carroll: they should really settle on a name. Poor Lazar/Laser
Hope Laser bit him on the Langer!
Someone in the area tipping off these guys on where to break in. Should be hauled in if identified. Some chance of that happening though.
@ianglen: looks like a utility worker, definite plan, in and out, only looking for 3 things.
Another valued member of a minority Irish culture.
Possibly from a horse slaughter house…..
@Thomas McMillan: Not a’tall boss.
Some dogs are great at rooting out rats
Pikey $cum at it again !??
Is he a Belgian Groenendael?
@Edmund Murphy: Garda unit says Belgian Malinois
@Edmund Murphy: yep Malinois
Turner and hooch !
Woof Woof, good doggie
Slow News Day?
@Bi88les: don’t be a miserable tw*t
@Dublinlife: I think it’s too late for that…
Gardai are looking for men in muddy clothes. Go into any pub in Cork and you’ll find loads of then
have your say