But there are still some great 'offers' available, if not in the sky.
The three CIE companies allow passengers to take fold-up bicycles for free on all their vehicles, bus and train. It's a fabulous facility.
If one is a PAYE employee she/he can avail of the Bike2Work Scheme. Up off and you're away.
The scheme was introduced in the last Fianna Fáil Green Coalition. Your employer pays up front for the bicycle and then they deduct it from your monthly/weekly salary. You end up paying the total cost of the bike minus tax, which depends on whether you are on standard or upper tax rate.
There's a downside to everything. The scheme means that there are far too many crazy cyclists on the roads. Ask any Dublin Bus Driver. One such driver was overheard saying to a customer that there are now nine million cyclists in the capital.
The scheme was introduced in the last Fianna Fáil Green Coalition. Your employer pays up front for the bicycle and then they deduct it from your monthly/weekly salary. You end up paying the total cost of the bike minus tax, which depends on whether you are on standard or upper tax rate.
There's a downside to everything. The scheme means that there are far too many crazy cyclists on the roads. Ask any Dublin Bus Driver. One such driver was overheard saying to a customer that there are now nine million cyclists in the capital.
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| Fold-up bike on Irish Rail InterCity train. |
4 comments:
Michael, I used to take my folding bike on the much missed Aer Arann flight from Manchester to Farranfore on my way to Nora. I had a bag for it and some makeshift packing which secured it in the hold. The character of a place can be defined for me by the way you arrive to it. Cycling onto the Dingle peninsula enhances natural beauty and the warm welcome I have always found there. Noting also your blog on the Dublin Bus timetable I think the city bike network badly needs a store of hire-bikes at the ferry terminal. Dublin bus from the boat to BusAras is so slow. Thank you also for your piece on a certain parish newsletter. I found your blogs by googling "priest castle gregory". Prompted by Nora's reference to a novel she's reading by Father Andrew Greeley. She refers to his perceptive and no doubt detached perspective on the seven sins...meanwhile we can only speculate about the content of a certain local priest's first novel. Its publication is surely just a matter of time? With very best wishes, Nora's fella' Mark Burgess (about to cycle on some Cheshire lanes.)
What a lovely surprise and thank you. Hello to Nora and her brother.
And then there might be a counter-novel. But why are we calling it a novel?
Enjoy the lanes of Cheshire.
Literary jousting! Nora referred to the Greeley book as one but this architect doesn't really know what is the strict definition of a "novel". Perhaps the Castle Gregory newsletter defies any accepted literary classification?! So maybe a new word is needed to describe it...
Indeed, plenty of words to describe it.
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