Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To follow on from that point, in his reply, the Minister said that he felt the amendment is too prescriptive. Deputy Ó Broin mentioned that transport has really been the preserve of engineers. This could have been very prescriptive. The proposers of the amendment could have gone into gradients and all the rest. This is actually pretty standard. We need to acknowledge that, at least in the constituency I share with the Minister, an awful lot of the LDA land banks are on the fringes of towns, away from train stations, traditional town centres and schools that already exist. The promotion of active travel needs to be at the core of transport and housing policy rather than something outside it, falling into the very broad definition included in the original Bill. The Minister has said he is not going to accept the amendment but I really do not see the harm in doing so. It is a very reasonable amendment. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, under whose remit active mobility falls. Two years ago, I hardly gave a second thought to escooters and they are now something to which we all have to adapt. It is a mode of transport that is here and growing. We are going to need the infrastructure to support it. This amendment would have captured that issue without being too prescriptive. I will leave it there.