Dr. Cathal FitzGerald:

I will make a quick point on public health. It goes back to research that was undertaken during the early stages of the pandemic. It was felt the density that was key to transport-oriented development, which makes them so useful and deals with other secondary benefits, was also linked to vulnerability to infection. Some of the early data indicated that the highest infection and mortality rates were in the more dense cities and metropolitan areas. We must remember that research subsequent to this found that there were different types of density and that the resources of the people living in those high density locations rather than the density per sewas leading to some of those infection rates, including people's ability to take time off if they are symptomatic, etc., and the fiscal resources of the communities and the services available to them. Insofar as TODs are provision of services as well as provision of public transport, we must remember that it is not density per sethat is linked to these types of problems, but the nature of the people living in the dense location.