Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Before the Minister leaves, I wish to ask him a question on transport. In one of his earlier responses, he mentioned that transport is the hardest sector in which to achieve the emissions cuts that we need to achieve by 2030. In another answer, the Minister mentioned the modelling around the various strategies that are underway at the moment. The transport strategy for the greater Dublin area was published by the NTA in the last week. The Minister mentioned that the modelling is perhaps not sophisticated enough. I am taking from that that the Minister agrees with me that it is a blunt instrument. He expressed the belief that we can go further than the percentage modal shift that is set out in the greater Dublin area strategy. Certainly, I would like to see a much greater modal shift outlined in the Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy. When we see the figures of 4% mode share for cycling by 2040, never mind 2030, it does impact of the confidence of people in the cities. The Minister rightly pointed out that it is just modelling, but should our transport strategies not have strategic targets separate to the modelling? I think that would be important to drive more sophisticated modelling and ambition. Currently, when we look at the transport strategies, it does not seem that they are aligned with the climate ambition that we have or the vision that we have set out in transport.