A lack of staff threatens the rollout of cycling routes, a Dublin-based councillor has said.
Cllr Eoin Ó Broin (Social Democrats) said: “It is disappointing that South Dublin County Council has not recruited adequate Active Travel Staff to implement its Cycle South Dublin vision of 250km of new bicycle lanes in a timely fashion.”
“This is all the more relevant as CO2 emissions from transport continue to rise across the country,” he said in a press release.
He added: “South Dublin County Council has received by far the lowest budgetary allocation for staffing for Active Travel projects for 2023 of the four Dublin Local Authorities. The population of South Dublin is significantly higher than Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.”
South Dublin County Council has one of the lowest percentages of allocated positions successfully recruited — with 55% of 18 of the allocated posts filled by the end of Q2 2023. In other words, the council has yet to get to spend its budgetary allocation for staff.
As this website reported last week, South Dublin County Council (SDCC), Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council and Fingal County Council all have an allocation of 18 Active Travel staff — the main difference seems to be that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is ahead of SDCC on recruitment.
Also last week, IrishCycle.com covered the national-level underspend of walking and cycling funding in 2022. In percentage terms of spending, South Dublin County Council did reasonably well in managing to spend 85% of its allocation, but its allocation was much lower than nearly all other city-based councils.