Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I have been listening in to the contributions in the office here. I want to pick up on one issue, which my colleague also raised, on the piece about the family roles. It is the second point in the research. The witnesses pointed towards policy opportunities such as enabling children's independent mobility, designing child friendly public transport and adjoining public space, and the promotion of car-free travel at weekends to establish new habits. Will the witnesses speak about the research in that area and the evidence that is coming back? It strikes me that this is a very important consideration. Will witnesses tease out some of those ideas? What is meant by the design of child friendly public transport? Is this a physical feature or is it, as Deputy Ó Murchú has said, about facilitating buggies and so on?

With regard to enabling children's independent mobility, are there good examples internationally where this is done? I do not have to look beyond my own home to appreciate the logistics of managing small children and everything that goes with that. Parents often use the throwaway remark of being the "kids' taxi" when running them around locally. There seems to be a lot of travelling with children that pulls towards the use of the private car. Are there good practices that we could point towards and learn from?