Cork business man teams up with GoCar to make 100 cars free for frontline workers
One hundred free cars are being made available to frontline workers thanks to an idea by a nurse who is putting her health on the line to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Serial entrepreneur Pat Phelan answered the nationwide call of nurse Ruthie McHugh.
The Corkman who runs Sisu cosmetic treatment chain in the UK and Ireland has teamed up with rental car company GoCar.
Mr Phelan took to Twitter to say that following talks with GoCar that, “We would like to thank our frontline heroes. There are 100 cars available not to front line health workers all over Ireland. These are totally free of charge.”
OK so as of right now, we have 100 cars available totally free of charge for frontline health workers, see details below on how to get set up.
— Pat (@patphelan) March 31, 2020
would you mind RT to get this out pic.twitter.com/K90S80XQDb
The cars are available to be collected in 20 locations around the country so it really is a nationwide effort.
Phelan sold payment fraud detection firm Trustev to TransUnion for $44m (€38.6m) in late 2015.
For information on the scheme frontline health workers can contact
Meanwhile, electric bike-sharing operator in Dublin, MobyMove have also offered their bicycles for free to health workers.
The company has already offered their electric bikes to delivery riders who are increasingly busy at this time.
However, they need help from the public to keep funding free electric bikes for healthcare workers.
Dublin-based healthcare workers, who normally use public transport to get to and from work, are being impeded both by the reduced public-transport service and by their grave need to isolate while not in a work setting.
Moby Move, were due to launch their scheme on April 1, want to now provide free electric bikes so healthcare workers can travel to and from hospitals easily, quickly, and without the risk of either contracting or spreading the Covid-19 virus.
The company has agreed to provide its entire fleet of bikes at zero cost. However, as a small start-up company, it needs help covering external running costs such as fuel and insurance as well as costs of mechanics, and delivery staff.
The idea came when emergency medicine doctor Anna O’Leary, who was due to do her cancelled driving test and was facing a 90-minute commute each way on two buses to the Dublin hospital she is working in, appealed for anyone to help locate an electric bike for her.
A gofundme.com fundraising campaign started two days ago has already raised €21,390 of €9,000 goal with the more donations received the more bikes they can get out to health workers for longer.
Responding to Dr O’Leary who used social media to source an electric bike to get to work, the company is already providing free bikes to several healthcare workers working across Dublin.
She said:
Thank you so much to absolutely everybody who reached out to help. It is all sorted now thanks to the overwhelming kindness of strangers. Ireland you are wonderful. Continue to be the helpers. Please stay at home to save a life. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Moby Move now wishes to provide 100 plus bikes so that as many healthcare workers as possible can provide critical care without worrying about their commute to and from work.
The company is also appealing to members of the public who wish to loan their electric bikes to healthcare workers to contact them. They are located on the bottom floor of Drury Street Car Park.
Other bike-rental operators who wish to join the scheme may do so.
Fundraiser Thomas O’Connell said: “If we go above the €9,000 target, we will not be keeping the extra funds.
“We will use any extra funding to get more bikes out to healthcare workers, and also we can lend out the bikes for longer. We can also enable other electric bike rental operators across the country to do the same thing and can help cover their costs if they participate in this scheme”.
To donate log onto gofundme.com/Free-Electric-Bikes-for-Health-Staff
