Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan TD has flatly denied he traveled to Limerick by train to give the appearance he was reducing his carbon footprint while a State car brought his bike to the city so he could cycle around "thinking he's a great man".
The allegation was made by Richard O'Donoghue TD (Ind) in the Dáil, video below. O'Donoghue, who represents Limerick County, accused Ryan of hypocrisy, saying his travel arrangements were at odds with the public persona he was trying to create.
He said as Ryan was traveling to Limerick by train, a State car was being used to bring his bike and when it arrived in the city Ryan was reunited with it then "cycled down the main street of Limerick, thinking he's a great man".
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O'Donoghue, of the Rural Independents group in the Dáil, also said Ryan should audition to be a clown in Fossett's Circus, as it was recruiting again. While his comments came in the Dáil he has in recent days Tweeted a photo of himself meeting a representative of Fossett's Circus, saying "he was looking for references on potential recruits for the circus" followed by a clown emoji.
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However, Ryan has now said he drove to Limerick himself - he has an electric car - adding he doesn't have a State car. He also said his bike never left Dublin when he went on the trip to Limerick earlier this year.
"I drove down to Limerick in my own car where I borrowed a bike from a local Green Party member in order to help promote the Limerick School Cycle Bus which does an amazing job organising a daily school run by bike for children and their parents," Ryan said on Twitter.
"And as the cycle bus departs at 8:10am each school day, I was unable to take the train from Dublin. But if I had, I would have made use of the cycle storage on Iarnród Éireann's carriages", he added, sharing a photograph of the bike carriage on one of the trains.
