> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dublininquirer.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# With new city bikeshare scheme on the horizon, attention turns to the future of the associated big billboards
- URL: https://www.dublininquirer.com/with-new-city-bikeshare-scheme-on-the-horizon-attention-turns-to-the-future-of-the-associated-big-billboards/
- Published: 2026-09-18T00:53:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-18T00:53:31.000Z
- Description: Will they be gone? Should they be kept?
- Author: Lois Kapila
- Tags: City Desk, public realm, advertising, Transport

Down along the wide and busy Ballybough Road into the city centre, there are JC Decaux billboards one after the other. 

From the corner of Clonliffe Road and Ball**y**bough Road alone, people confront big billboards in the near and far distance, says Social Democrats Councillor Karl Stanley. 

There's one on the railway bridge. 

There's another up on the gable end that looks over the historic Ballybough burial plot, these days a small pocket park with a couple of benches.

And another outside the Ballybough Youth Services, which on Wednesday flicked between giant adverts for the Citrëon van range and the Screwfix delivery app.

This last one, on the footpath, is among those [put up by](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28653501-extension-permission-application-for-the-jc-decaux-metropole-on-ballybough-road/?ref=dublininquirer.com) JC Decaux two decades ago, under the "bikes for billboards" contract, which has seen it operate and run the city's bikeshare scheme in exchange for 82 advertising billboards around town.

Not all of the billboards in Ballybough relate to the scheme – some are on private buildings, not in public spaces.

But with a new city bikeshare contract in the works, and the new operator and arrangement yet to be chosen, Stanley says he wants to make sure that those that have been tied to this concession aren't just grandfathered in.

The DublinBikes scheme has been indirectly paid for in part by the attention of people in parts of the city who didn't even get bikes and bike stations installed in their neighbourhoods, he said. 

Earlier this month, Stanley asked council managers about the "future status" of these billboards. Essentially, whether they would still be there, this time next year. 

The current contract is due to expire on 30 September 2027, said the written response from the council executives. 

So "all advertising units that form part of the contract will be required to be removed following the expiry of the concession", it says. The council and JC Decaux haven't agreed a timeline for that yet, the response said. 

While that sounds as if they'll all be stripped out and there'll be fewer advertising billboards in Ballybough, and other parts of the city, it's not quite that simple.

## The roads in

In July 2023, JC Decaux put in a planning application to extend permission for the advertising billboard outside of the Ballybough Youth Centre.

In response, Ballybough Pride of Place, a local community group, [audited how many](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28653502-ballybough-pride-of-place/?ref=dublininquirer.com) billboards there were on the big roads flowing into the city centre.

"As we have suspected for a long time, Ballybough is quite simply overwhelmed and blighted by advertising," wrote Frank Keohane, the chair of Ballybough Pride of Place in a planning submission.

They counted 30 billboards in the area, he said. Of those, 17 were on Ballybough Road or could be seen from the road. North Strand had 10 billboards. While there were just three on Drumcondra Road, six on Dorset Street, two on Clanbrassil Street, and four on Pearse Street. 

"While billboards are something that one can pass by without taking any notice of them – the subliminal impacts are ever present and they have a significant negative impact on the visual character and environment of Ballybough," he said.

The discrepency in which neighbourhoods have gotten billboards, and which got bikes, has been a long-time point of dispute. 

"The most commercially efficient sites in Dublin are located on heavily trafficked radial/orbital routes, or within key civic/retail quarters," [noted a council report](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28653511-ceisteanna-f-bhuan-ord-imhir-16/?ref=dublininquirer.com) from 2016.

By that same year, the northside of the city had 59 percent of the advertising units and 35 percent of the bike stations, while the southside had 41 percent of the advertising units and 65 percent of the bike stations, [showed a](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28653510-distibution-of-adverts-and-bicycle-stations/?ref=dublininquirer.com) council report.

"I feel strongly that there's a social justice issue here," says Stanley.

## How to pay for it

To date, the billboards have been part of a patchwork of funding sources that oil the scheme as it currently runs.

[Under the](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28654449-to-confirm-the-minutes-of-the-city-council-meeting-held-on-the-13th-february-2023/?q=JC+Decaux&mode=document&ref=dublininquirer.com#document/p22) first contract in 2006 – with 40 stations and 450 bikes – JCDecaux got space for advertising structures and in exchange ran the bikeshare scheme. 

Later phases have been heavily subsidised in other ways, with capital costs for expansions funded with grants by the National Transport Authority, sponsorship, and annual fees paid by the council to JC Decaux for maintenance and upkeep. A council report [mentions a fee of](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28654449-to-confirm-the-minutes-of-the-city-council-meeting-held-on-the-13th-february-2023/?ref=dublininquirer.com) €2.5 million a year.

As the state chipped in more for the bikeshare scheme, the council began to take some of the income from the advertising boards.

"In order to counter these costs it was agreed that Dublin City Council would receive a share of advertising income from a number of JCDecaux digital advertising structures at approx. €350,000 per year, with potential to increase this income as the advertising network was expanded", a council report [says.](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28654449-to-confirm-the-minutes-of-the-city-council-meeting-held-on-the-13th-february-2023/?q=JC+Decaux&mode=document&ref=dublininquirer.com#document/p22) 

Then, of course, there's the rider subscriptions. At the moment, it costs €35 for an annual subscription to DublinBikes, with the first 30 minutes of each journey free.

Stanley, the Social Democrats councillor, says that he expects any future scheme to have a much simpler funding mechanism.

But it's still undecided how any new scheme will operate and fund itself going forward, and what the council will ask companies to provide, in any tender. There are different visions for that. 

[Competing visions for Dublin’s bikeshare emerge ahead of new contractWhere, and how, should the council spend its money?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9f/78/9f782dda-9dc9-44d1-b817-fe80588bdc76/content/images/icon/Favicon-2-40aa0334-01e5-4787-8684-4a4eb188c205.jpg)Dublin InQuirerSam Tranum![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9f/78/9f782dda-9dc9-44d1-b817-fe80588bdc76/content/images/thumbnail/Dublin-Bike-bike.-Photo-by-Sam-Tranum-2-1-39a1401a-df0f-4e6f-8bcb-64b11ea8f74d.jpg)](https://www.dublininquirer.com/competing-visions-for-dublins-bikeshare-emerge-ahead-of-new-contract/)

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner says she has "no grá for the billboards". 

But her understanding is that end of the old contract means that the billboards could be separated from the existing contract but still be used as a revenue stream for the council, she said – whether for bikeshare or not. 

"Which would open up the removal of them, but not necessitate their removal," she said.

## Keeping costs down

Ultimately, what the new contract ends up looking like will be decided by council officials, rather than councillors.

Horner, who heads up the council's public realm and transport committee, says her priorities for the scheme overall would be to expand coverage, to include e-bikes, to integrate apps if there are multiple operators and, of major importance, to make sure it is affordable.

Those are her focus, she said. 

Stanley says that he was alarmed when he [saw the cost of](https://citibikenyc.com/pricing?ref=dublininquirer.com) Citi Bike, the share scheme in New York, where an annual subscription is $239, and a day pass is $25.

He and Horner say they both want the new scheme to be kept at a low price point, alongside the hoped-for expansion from around 1,600 to 4,000 bikes so it serves more folks in more parts of the city. 

"It's really important it's affordable," said Stanley.

But does that mean that billboards have to be part of the equation?

Stanley says he thinks there could be some level of cross-subsidising between different kinds of users, and depending on the type of bikes that are hired – with some being cheap and some fancier.

And, if they NTA funds the infrastructure for the council, that solves the problem of the capital costs and having to repay those too, he said. 

Although, Horner says her impression is that the council is reluctant to get the NTA involved, as they have different visions.

Stanley says his assumption is that the council's request for tender will be for a system that washes its face as much as possible. Ideally, the council does not want to be putting money into a bikeshare scheme, he said. 

It's possible too, that JC Decaux will bid for the contract again with an element of advertising space as part of the deal. 

Horner says her read is that JC Decaux still think the most cost-effective way to cover overheads is through advertising billboards, she said. 

And with digitised billboards making more money, it could mean fewer of those for the same revenue, said Horner. But "digital billboards do have more impact on the streetscape, they're much more visible".

A spokesperson for JC Decaux said that they couldn't answer questions at the moment about what it foresees is to happen with the billboards. 

They're waiting for the council to decide how they want to move forward with the procurement process for the next bikeshare scheme contract, they said.