Mr. Alan Kerry:

This is a very live subject for us. It is always beneficial if we can bring it back to an understanding of the point of origin and destination, which are important to transport planners. It would be remiss of us in this environment not to acknowledge the considerable dedication that exists through voluntary directorships. Our organisations are all managed by voluntary directors who give of their time monthly, including in regard to management subcommittee meetings. Each of the 15 structures is a charity.

I have been one of the lucky ones in that I took advantage of an NTA-supported venture in relation to academic qualifications. I sit here today as a sustainable transport planner, having undertaken and completed a master's degree in sustainable transport and mobility. It has been a game changer regarding what we would see as the priorities. However, we need to ask again how we can magnify the skill set. I have learned over recent years that, in leading people, you lead the people above as well as those below. Evidence, research and having examples of success are very important.

Let me refer to the potential that exists regarding the expansion we know is required. Senator Wall, Mr. Gaston and Ms Graham will be aware that the Climate Action Advisory Council brought in the OECD in 2021 to examine Ireland's transport policies. One output of the project was that the OECD pushed the Government in the sense that if we are to achieve what are hugely ambitious targets for 2030 and 2050, we need transformative policy. That is where we need to be. It needs to be supported by the ambition that will bring us to that point.

School transport has been mentioned on a few occasions in a few different guises in this conversation. We have to recognise that the school transport network is possibly the single biggest network that operates in rural Ireland, but it is not a transport network; it is part of an educational support scheme. It has been in place since 1967. From the OECD's perspective, there is a need for conversations and considerations in this regard. All this feeds into the merry-go-round here concerning bus stops and the seriousness of the situation. Again, it is a case of realising that the network that has traditionally operated in rural Ireland has not had the infrastructure in question.

There are many topics related to what we are discussing today, and the governance of the organisations is definitely one of them. We must ask whether we can have confidence that the skill sets exist, that capacity is being built and that the knowledge is available. In recent years, each company has adopted the charities governance code. One of the criteria is that you adopt a certain number of terms concerning the governance of the organisation. We are now coming to a set of circumstances in which most of the organisations will, either this year or next, be at a point of washout in that the terms of the people who were involved with us at the start will be completed. We are moving to both an opportunity and a challenge because the existing knowledge base is starting to decrease more and more. We must ask whether we can replace that with the relevant knowledge base that will carry us over the next 20 years.