The Government has told Alan Dillon TD, who has been pressing for cycling helmets to be made compulsory, that it will not introduce any change to the current rules.
At present helmets are not compulsory. Though many Irish people wear a helmet when cycling, each cyclist is left to decide whether to wear one or not.
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New Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan TD (Greens) has now told Dillon that of helmets were made compulsory it would have a negative impact on numbers cycling.
Dillon asked Ryan in a written Dáil question of he would consider "introducing mandatory helmet legislation for young cyclists".
However, Ryan replied he had no plans to do so because of the negative impact it would have on the number of people cycling in the Republic.
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"International evidence is that mandatory helmet legislation acts as a major disincentive to cycling such that the net impact of the legislation on public health is significantly negative. Therefore I do not propose to introduce such legislation," he said.
Eamon Ryan is the leader of the Green Party and recently became Minister for Transport, replacing Shane Ross, when his party went into coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.
His response to Dillon was the first time since taking office that he had set out his views on making helmets mandatory.
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