New applications for the Cycle to Work scheme from Department of Education employees will be accepted from June 8, the Department told IrishCycle.com this morning.
In a notice on its website, the Department of Education and Skills had said: “To support efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus, new applications for the Cycle to Work scheme are not being accepted until further notice.” It did not respond directly how this approach goes against the approach by cities such as Dublin to put cycling central to reopening urban areas without them getting clogged by cars.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education and Skills said this morning: “The processing of cycle to work applications for staff paid on payrolls operated by the Department was temporarily suspended due to the Covid-19 lockdown. The priority has been to ensure the 125,000 payees on the payrolls continued to be paid on a fortnightly basis.”
They added: “The Department will reopen the scheme for new applications from the 8th June. In 2019 there were 1,918 applications to the scheme processed and in 2020 there were 760 processed. Any applications that were outstanding since March 12 will be dealt with as soon as possible after the scheme reopens.”
September subscription drive update: IrishCycle.com has reached its target of 270 subscribers by the end of August -- thank you to all who have helped! Our new target is to have 300 subscribers by the end of 2022 -- originally this was hoped to be exceeded by the first year of running the site full time (end of October), but this is unlikely and so the new target is the end of the year.
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Cian Ginty
Editor, IrishCycle.com
Good to see a response to letters sent to Minister!……small victories!