Louth Disability Cycling Club bring campaign to Leinster House

Louth Disability Cycling Club brought their pedal power to Leinster House last week with a special presentation to Oireachtas members and a debate at the Disability Matters committee.

Members of the group, which is chaired by Gary Shields, attended the Disability Matters committee, along with Variety, the Children’s charity’s head of operations, Kevin O’Brien.

The committee heard Mr O’Brien outline the huge benefits that specially adapted bikes and trishaws can have for children and adults who have disability or mobility issues and how Louth Disability Cycling Club (LDCC) are “the best disability cycling organisation in the country”.

Mr O’Brien said LDCC had done a huge amount of work to bring the idea of disability cycling to Dundalk and the wider area.

He said Variety’s Recycle Mobility Programme had been very successful. He said: “This is an initiative set up by Variety Ireland in the summer of 2021 with the support of the then Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, the HSE and the then Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan.

“The programme provides financial assistance for specially adapted mobility trikes for children with disabilities who cannot use conventional bicycles.

“In addition, there is an upcycling element that makes the programme fully sustainable because nothing goes to waste. Once a child has outgrown his or her adapted trike, the item is returned, refurbished or adapted and passed on to a school in order that even more people with mobility issues can enjoy equal access to cycling”.

LDCC members Paul Callan, Daniel Lambe, Sandra Rogers and Kevin McKee, along with Mr O’Brien, also hosted a briefing for Oireachtas members about disability cycling at the AV Room after their committee appearance, organised by Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú.

The Dundalk Deputy is a volunteer cyclist with LDCC and Oireachtas members heard him and LDCC members speak passionately about the work done by the organisation and the benefits that it brings to those who use the service and their families.

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He said the support of Louth County Council will be critical to the expansion of the scheme, where the council could facilitate the creation of cycling bases or hubs in a way that is sustainable and would secure the future of LDCC.

Mr Callan said: “The enjoyment we get from doing this is unbelievable and we do it with a smile on our face.

“We would like to see this throughout the 32 counties”.