Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leo. I thank Mr. Spratt and his team who have come in. A number of these issues have been dealt with to some degree and I apologise for any repetition.

School transport needs to be dealt with. It is a farce every year in respect of who can access it. The Chairman mentioned students on concessionary tickets. A child is meant to get it. Initially, it was for the closest school or closest node of school once students are 4.8 km away. Then, this year the second closest school or node was introduced.

Every year there is a panic and some people do not think they are getting it. Then we all do whatever we do politically between ourselves and the person responsible. Most of them get it but some do not and they are the people one is then forcing into cars or whatever else. It defies logic as we try to get people onto public transport. It goes without saying a serious piece of work must be done, even to get us to that farcical point where we could avoid that nonsense we all engage in every summer of clientelistically trying to sort this. It is not only Teachtaí Dála but councillors. Everybody becomes involved.

On active travel, the NTA is basically the lead. The local authority is in most places the primary delivery outfit and there is obviously a piece of work that involves TII and whatever. I accept recruitment and everything is ongoing. Has an assessment been made of what the requirement is here with respect to moneys and resources? Local authorities have implemented some of these over the years, such as cycle lanes and everything. There have been some good projects and some bad projects. On some level it is welcome that the NTA is coming in with an overall strategy for this but again it is just about the assessment of what is required and how close to that point we are currently.