Sir, – I agree with Brendan Quinn (July 1st) when he says we need a lot more cycle trails and the few short stretches we have represent a derisory attempt to catch up with the rest of Europe.
Germany has 75,000km of dedicated cycleways; Ireland has less than 100km, spread over two locations in Mayo and Limerick. Over five million Germans take cycling holidays each year but few if any of them come here; why would they? We don’t have even one off-road cycle trail long enough to cater for a week or a fortnight-long holiday, and nobody is going to spend a week cycling up and down the Mayo Greenway like a demented hamster in a wheel.
However I don’t share Mr Quinn’s optimism that anything will be done to bring full-length cycle trails to the west any time soon. The key strip of publicly-owned land suitable for this kind of tourist and amenity development is the disused light railway from Claremorris to Collooney, but the chances of this being used for leisure purposes are nil to zero.
A power bloc of county councillors in western counties that comprises the “inter-county railway committee” has not only blocked any initiatives to develop this asset but has even vetoed discussion of uses other than rail for the route – a motion at the May meeting of Roscommon County Council to simply open a debate on this issue was roundly defeated.
A railway on this route was never planned by any government, not even the free-spending Fianna Fáil/Green coalition, and it is not in the plans of the current Government; it exists only in the minds of a small cabal of train enthusiasts with no real grasp of economics or reality.
However, the negative influence of these local politicians will mean that this part of Ireland will again be left behind while other places go after the fastest growing leisure business in Europe.
The west’s awake? Not the last time I looked, I’m afraid. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MULLIGAN,
Kiltycreighton,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon.