Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Graham and Drs. Caulfield and Torney for their opening statements and for participating. We are interested in their expertise in how we can achieve a modal shift away from the dominant private car and towards healthier and sustainable modes of active travel, public transport and multimodal options such as bike-rail-bike, as used in the Netherlands.

As this meeting is confined to a maximum of two hours, I propose that each member be given two minutes to address their questions to the witnesses in order to ensure that all members get an opportunity to contribute. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will start the questions while the clerk is noting the order of hands raised. My first question is for Dr. Caulfield, who outlined the urgent need to roll out sustainable transport infrastructure. Is the proposed infrastructure sufficient to shift people from the private car? Do we need to look at other measures in parallel to push people towards the use of more sustainable transport modes on the demand side?

I will go through my questions for Dr. Torney and Ms Graham and the witnesses can answer one after the other. Dr. Torney indicated the need to revise the mandates of the transport institutions. Is he suggesting to the committee that the legislation that governs the NTA and TII should be amended to prioritise decarbonisation explicitly as their central goal? Does he see more structural reform being required for these institutions?

This modal shift requires reallocation of road space. The NTA is involved in BusConnects and the roll-out of active travel networks, including providing direction and standards for local authorities. Does the NTA need to be far more explicit in its approach to modal shift by ensuring this road space reallocation is the basic starting point in transport planning and design? Does the NTA accept that to alleviate congestion the public and active travel networks need to be the most convenient modes of transport and the road space reallocated accordingly?

How does the NTA calculate where best to target transport emissions reductions outside of the electrification of the fleet? Specifically, is the NTA assessing to which parts of the country it is best to direct resources to achieve a modal shift that has the biggest impact on transport emissions? How is that calculated or assessed?