Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am genuinely surprised because this is a friendly amendment, and I thought, not unlike Deputy O'Callaghan's amendment in the previous section, it was one the Minister could support. It is important to understand about the amendment that there is a sea change in transportation policy taking place. Unfortunately, like so many other areas, Irish governments have been slow to catch up on this.

Traditionally, transportation was the preserve of engineers, the people who built roads, whereas increasingly it is about active mobility. For me, the important bit of this amendment is the reference to active mobility because that is much more than the engineering of roads infrastructure, although we need an adequate supply of that. It also involves, exactly as the Minister said, mobility transport and planning experts to ensure the maximum possible number of options are available if we are to shift people's modal use away from cars and towards other uses.

From my reading of the Bill, it does not seem to mention active mobility anywhere, which is a real omission. My fear is that, if it is not included, it will not get done. It will become an option rather than a requirement. Given that the Minister has said he hopes to see the Land Development Agency incorporate these new active mobility and updated transport policies - and we would ultimately like to see all new housing developments do likewise - I can see no reason the Minister would not accept this amendment or why he would not insert such a provision elsewhere in the Bill if he feels there is a more important location for it.