Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I completely appreciate that and I know about the resistance. However, I have noticed a big difference before and after BusConnects, for what it is worth.

With regard to active travel, there is still a de facto embargo on local authorities in terms of staffing. There is a disproportionate number of staff. The staff ratio is different in different parts of the country. For example, Kerry has double the staff that Meath has but there are 70,000 more people in Meath. I can just tell you that off the top of my head. It is not evenly distributed throughout the country. Many of the technical staff in local authorities lost their jobs because they were on contracts when the big embargo and economic crash happened and they have not recovered that. It is almost always outsourcing because some local authorities do not have the in-house numbers to deal with it, particularly in areas that have grown, such as Fingal, south Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. That is the big arc where the population increase has happened in very large numbers. When I meet my local authority, it tells me it cannot do that because it cannot get the people to do it. It cannot get people to design it. Is the NTA getting money back? We want money to be spent. It is almost sinful that money is not spent when there are projects that should be delivered and, from a climate perspective, must be delivered. I refer to not being able to get people to design because a local authority does not have in-house people and cannot get consultancy. What money is being handed back in terms of grants? Is the NTA monitoring that? Are there particular pinch points with particular local authorities?