Dr. Sarah Rock:

I know the Senator did not mean that. I just want to explain what I mean by segregation. Women absolutely want safety in our cycling infrastructure, and that is the key factor. That means we largely do not want to share the carriageway with fast-moving vehicles. That is the key factor.

We need to design infrastructure that is separate but not so separate that people are left in underpasses or overpasses, or down in places where there are not eyes from the street. That relationship between urban design and cycle planning is key.

Cycling in Ireland does not currently make up a great percentage of the mobility of care journeys but it does in other countries. For example, in Denmark more women than men cycle, more women with children cycle and more woman across all income groups and age groups cycle. it is a very different circumstance from Ireland because there is a massive difference in the design of infrastructure.

The Senator also asked about data. For my sins, I was an enumerator in the most recent census of population. Because I was so dedicated to the cause, I wanted to know what it was really like to collect census data. There is a balance that must be struck in the level of detail one can get from a census questionnaire. To get to the level we need, we would have to do a different type of survey. That is where our national household travel surveys must come into play. We are never going to get the level of data we need from a census which looks at many things. Instead we need to focus on 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 participants and focus then on a detailed household travel survey. That is what I would recommend. I have not seen the new census questions yet and look forward to reading them. I understand there are more questions around travel. There must be a limit to what we can get from that sort of census of population.