Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask for that because I visited two primary schools in rural areas in my constituency recently, as public representatives are often asked to. There were more than 30 in the room in fifth and sixth class. I asked how many walked to school on that day and only one hand out of 31 went up. They were all being dropped to school.

I am just saying it is not just urban areas where there are issues. Nearly every child in the country is being driven to school nowadays, one way or the other. That initiative really needs to be expanded right throughout the country. I ask the NTA to encourage An Taisce to come back with a more ambitious proposal for every subsequent year because in rural areas in particular people do not have any alternatives. They might say there is so much traffic on the roads that one could not dream of letting one's children out on the roads either. I am just saying the outcome is that children do not walk to school very much any more. The NTA has that programme-----