Madam, – I refer to the article by Orna Mulcahy (“Decaux runs rings around council in Tour of Dublin”, August 28th) regarding the Dublin bikes scheme.
I wish to correct some of the facts as outlined by Ms Mulcahy, as follows: 1. The headline completely misrepresents the entire project. 2 The deal was not secretive, it followed on from a public procurement process in a very open and transparent way. 3. It was announced earlier this year that the infrastructural works would commence in April and would take 10 weeks to complete. This is exactly what happened. The system is based on a state-of-the-art IT system and this had to be fully tested prior to the opening of the scheme. All fee income from the bikes comes to the City Council. 4. The cost of the card and the fee per half hour were included in the press release some weeks ago. These details are also on www.dublinbikes.ie since August 10th. 5. The charges in Dublin are the cheapest of all of these schemes in Europe and a two-hour spin will cost exactly €1.50, with the first 30 minutes at no charge. 6. JCDecaux has planning permission for advertising sites throughout the city. The City is getting use of 38 of the advertising faces each month, with all of the cost being picked up by JCDecaux. This has allowed the City to have advertising campaigns in a time when the council has reduced the spend on advertising by 50 per cent (in line with Government instructions). 7. Ms Mulcahy’s comments in relation to bikes being vandalised in other cities read almost as if she is setting a challenge to have the Dublin bikes vandalised. 8. Dublin is the first city in Ireland to use the public domain to fund schemes such as the bikes. – Yours, etc,