Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. He raised several really good programmes. I am delighted he did because it is important that I get a chance to discuss them. A lot of the funding is for rural areas. Just yesterday, the €72 million active travel budget for rural towns and villages was announced. When people hear of walking and cycling strategies and active travel, they immediately think of urban centres. It is critical to service rural areas. The Government is committed to ensuring we roll out safe cycling and walking infrastructure, and it is committed to spending almost €1 million per day on it. Our rural towns and villages are key to that. Part of the process involves what the Deputy mentioned, namely the Safe Routes to School programme. That can work with the wider active travel program, filling in the gaps in the footpath to the town or village and perhaps connecting it with the local greenway. The infrastructure is not just for schoolchildren; it will be used by entire communities. It is a matter of determining how to keep the school gateway safe and working with the schools.

What we are asking through the Safe Routes to School programme, and this is an important message to get out, is that the schools lead on this. That is why the Minister for Education and I wrote to every secondary and primary school in the country asking them to go online and fill out a form expressing their interest in working with An Taisce Green-Schools on solutions for them. Just because one is in a rural area does not mean there are no solutions; there are. It is by being innovative and working with the local authority, through An Taisce Green-Schools, that we could have what I would like to see after the first round of funding for Safe Routes to School.

The Deputy asked if this would be provided every year. That is what we want, namely, a rolling fund for this every year. In this context, I want to see examples of rural, suburban and city centre schools and to have models we can replicate throughout the country. Perhaps a school where the authorities believe they could not do anything in this respect as the school is in a difficult area in terms of dealing with traffic issues would see another leader, example or model where it worked well. This will be the start of an exciting roll-out of walking and cycling infrastructure throughout the country.

Regarding Local Link, it is tapped into that whole rural agenda around which the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, launched a new rural strategy yesterday. It is absolutely critical. The NTA is also planning a two-phrased approach to consultation on connecting Ireland, of which the members may have heard. The consultation is with stakeholder engagement. The first is local and regional authorities. It started in October 2020 on the main concepts of connecting Ireland. The NTA has identified a requirement to undertake a study of public transport services in non-urban markets - this links in to what the Deputy said about rural Ireland - to inform its approach to rolling out improved public transport across the country, ultimately enabling the NTA to present its vision for a countrywide-connected, low-carbon, public transport network. This is an important and exciting programme that taps into what the Deputy said. It is important all of us and our local councillors engage with the local authorities. We are providing the funding and the resources to do it, but the big challenge will be the implementation and the roll-out of all these projects.