The Irish Cycling Campaign has run the rule over each of the political parties and ranked which ones would be best for cyclists and cycling, with the Green Party coming out on top.
However, while the identity of the front runner is perhaps not a surprise, they are chase very closely indeed by two of their rivals for form the minority party in a coalition government after the national votes on Friday.
Both the Labour Party and the Social Democrats are equal 2nd and are only marginally behind the Greens, with virtually nothing to split them. As the Greens have been in power for the last five years, and may have a tough election, Labour is perhaps best-place of the top three to be in power after the election, though it's still all to play for.
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However, while the Greens score 90 per cent in the Irish Cycling Network's scoring charts - with Labour and the Soc Dems both on 87 per cent - there is then a very big gap back to the fourth placed parties.
People Before Profit and Sinn Féin are 4th and 5th, both on 53 per cent. And the two main government parties - Fine Gael and Fianna Fail - scoring just 37 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
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“While cycling advocacy in Ireland is 40 years old, it is in the past few years where we have made real progress in re-building a cycling culture in Ireland," said Neasa Bheilbigh, chairperson of Irish Cycling Campaign.
"The government funding over the past 4.5 years has been instrumental to that progress. That funding needs to continue and grow, to develop segregated cycle ways, greenways and safe routes to school to allow this generation and the next to feel safe enough to choose to use the bike for their daily activities.
"We need to adapt our private car use to achieve the critical goals of an improved and safer public realm, lower emissions and more efficient movement of people around our towns, cities and rural areas."
Irish Cycling Campaign is calling on the next government to:
- Increase Investment in Sustainable / Public Transport to the tune of
– 20% of transport capital budget allocated for walking+cycling
– 5:1 ratio of spend of new public transport to new roads - Rapidly deliver High Quality Cycling Infrastructure
- Prioritise Safe Routes to School
- Enhance Cyclists Safety
- Broaden access to bikes
- Expand Bike Parking and bike sharing schemes
- Legislate to enable best practice cycle infrastructure designs
- Address motor vehicle overuse and oversize.
The detailed examination of each party manifesto can be read by following this link.
