Cycling Mission to Ireland

Cycling in Ireland is booming! In the last years, many Irish counties visited the Netherlands for inspiration and to learn about Dutch cycling. The Irish are investing a lot in their cycling culture and the Dutch are eager to help them, so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. This time a Dutch delegation of 16 companies visited Dublin and Cork as part of a Cycling Trade Mission, organised with RVO and the Netherlands Embassy in Dublin.  

The delegation represented a broad range of cycling organisations such as bike parking, smart solutions, behavior change, network and infrastructure design, and bike manufacturers. Because we had so many different fields of expertise in the group, we represented a large part of the bike community. This led to lively discussions with the Irish counterparts.  

The first day of the mission started with a meeting with the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). NTA and TII informed us about national planning strategies for active mobility in urban and rural areas. It was hugely beneficial to hear about the ambitions of the national government and the frameworks behind it so that the Dutch delegation could position themselves. In the afternoon, the Dutch delegation split up. One group went to the Cycling Super Store and the other to Irish Rail. The first group focused on retail and how to set up shop in Ireland. The second group met at the new Train Control Center (NTCC) that will open in the coming months. We heard about the customer journey for Irish commuters, and we discussed how this can be improved with Dutch innovative solutions.  

Day two started with some drops of rain but that didn’t stop the Dutch to go on a cycle tour in South Dublin. The amazing ‘active travel’ team from South Dublin hosted us on a bike ride to show us their recently finished projects (amongst others a beautiful Greenway), stretches they were still working on, and some of the bottleneck areas. We were accompanied by Dutch ambassador Maaike van Koldam and Mayor of South Dublin Alan Edge. Then we travelled to Dublin City to meet with the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Irish companies to network and discuss about future collaborations. Finally, we met with Dublin City, South Dublin, and Fingal for a knowledge exchange about creating a cycle friendly Dublin. The day showed lots of enthusiasm from both sides to connect and work together! 

Of course, we couldn’t leave Ireland without a visit to Cork! In the morning, we met with Cork City and Cork County to talk about their ambitions to become a safe cycling city and region. Cork foresees that cycling can play an important role in the City’s future prosperity for businesses. Our last meeting was with the Cork Chamber of Commerce and their Traffic Mobility Forum. The Dutch entrepreneurs had good conversations with the Irish counterparts about the current cycling situation and how they could work together to improve it.  

A special thanks goes to RVO, Handelsroute, and the Netherlands Embassy in Dublin for the wonderful cooperation in organising this mission. Also, a huge thank you to all the public and private organisations we met with in Ireland, it was great to meet you all (again) and work together!