Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies for not being here; I was speaking in the Seanad on broadband, another important issue that falls within the Minister's remit. We have had discussions with the Department recently about the framework that is supposedly under discussion and how we can plan for the future of transport from a climate change perspective. I know that others have spoken about electric vehicles, EVs. I am concerned about that issue on two fronts. First, it seems that while we expect to have around 1 million EVs on the roads by the end of the decade, from talking to people in the industry, it seems that Ireland is competing with other countries and will be under enormous pressure to get the number of vehicles required. I know there has been relatively good uptake to date. The range anxiety issue that others have talked about is still an issue. I spoke to people in the ESB the other day. They are looking at this purely from a commercial point of view. In my view, there is a lack of ambition on the part of a State company that should be rolling out that service much more aggressively.

I welcome the Minister's recent announcement on funding for cycle and active travel, including walkways and footpaths. That is very important. Lighting will need to be installed as part of that. For some time, local authorities have shown a lack of interest in extending the lighting system around some of our villages. Most smaller towns and villages are looking at developing walkways and footpaths that run around their curtilage. The village that I live in, Tulla, is a perfect example. Part of a road was upgraded several years ago and a footpath was extended to effectively form a looped walk. Around one quarter of it is unlit, and at this time of the year it is dangerous. I know why the local authority does not want to extend the lighting, but is going to have to do so. It is part of getting people into that way of life. I know it will create additional pressure on the grid but it would be relatively small in real terms.

In addition to funding for footpaths and cycleways, we need to provide for lighting. It is like getting people to make a big spend on an EV. They are then captured as climate change ambassadors and from then on, they start to change other aspects of their lives to achieve carbon reduction. It is the same when we get people out walking. They do it at this time of the year, from a health perspective, to work off the pounds gained over Christmas. However, if people get into walking for that purpose, they also become active travel enthusiasts thereafter. We must make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

The other issue that has been a bugbear of mine, and I have raised it with this Minister and his predecessors, is school transport. I have argued for a long time that we should not restrict children who live within two miles or a mile and a half of their school, or whatever the distance is, from school transport based on their postcode, etc. If there is a bus passing, it should be big enough to take them. While dropping my kids to school for the past 15 years, I have seen people driving to the schools who, frankly, do not need to drive. They may live only a mile or a mile and a half away from the school. We would like to get them cycling and walking, but the first thing we need to do is to get them out of the pattern of dropping their children off every morning. The best way to do that is to give every kid access to a bus, which would mean having a few bigger buses. The buses are there anyway. As I said previously, we would get champions and ambassadors based on attracting them in. Where we would really attract young people is by getting them to use public transport. Is it any wonder that the first thing young people want to do when they get a job is to buy a car when they have been driven everywhere, particularly those living in rural Ireland? If we can get kids on buses from the start, we will go a long way towards making that modal shift and changing behaviour because it will become second nature to them as they progress through life. As an initiative from a climate change perspective, we should look at providing access to a school bus service for every child.