Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It would be remiss of me not to mention school transport. It is a large element of our work, particularly in the months once the schools close and before the new school year starts. It involved expenditure of €220 million per annum pre-Covid. I will not refer to the period during Covid because the numbers were higher. That gave the context to me of the €360 million. It is a huge amount, looking to have it put to good use.

On school transport, if we get to safe schools, I would like to see money put in at that level enabling children to cycle to schools, looking at the way you can take cars off the school run. The distance for school transport is 4.8 km. If students are not that distance away, they will not get it. They may get on as a concession, but I will not complicate this. If I can encourage a child to cycle or walk to school that is the best of all but if the weather is very bad, in many cases they may not. There is a body of work to be done on getting children to cycle to school at a young age. We speak about spending money on young people in respect of their education. It should be the same with active travel. They are modes of transport and there is an interdepartmental body of work to be done with the Department of Transport and, I suspect, the Department of Education. Am I correct that Mr. Spratt has taken it on board to do that?