Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their comprehensive opening statement. I will concentrate on the points focusing on climate and transport. I might preface my questions by noting the fact that the siting of a new school is a considerable public investment. When we are making a public investment, we should try to make sure there is a dividend in terms of the public good that exists, obviously within the school gate but it should also extend beyond the school gate. Schools are at the heart of our communities, certainly in a social sense, but I often get the feeling, especially with new builds, that they are not geographically at the centre of our communities at times. Moreover, I do not know whether we consider enough the possibility of the school being a linchpin for supporting services or supporting community networks.

I must pick up on Mr. Loftus's answer about the siting of features as simple as zebra crossings. His answer essentially suggested the Department does not deal with that because it falls on someone else's plate. When we think in that kind of siloed way, we miss an opportunity with school builds. When you consider that, it is completely obvious, but it needs almost constant restating. The overwhelming majority of the people who attend our schools do not drive, given you have to be about 16 years of age to get a licence, depending on the type, but we do not consider issues such as children’s independent mobility. We are not considering in enough detail issues such as safe pedestrian access or a cycle network that can get a kid safely to and from school under their own steam. If we invest in that correctly, however, we will not just be providing a dividend for the school and for kids travelling to and from it but there will also be potential for the school to act as a linchpin to base a whole network around.

If we were talking about companies, we would be talking about scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. When I look at what the Department said about decarbonisation, if it were a company, I would be saying that is scope 1 emissions we are looking at. I do not see a consideration of what a company would be asked to refer to as scope 3 emissions, which would equate in this instance to emissions generated in getting kids to and from school.

I will not bamboozle people with statistics, but we have made progress in the period between the 2016 census and the 2022 census. Good progress has been made, but if we compare the Irish figures with the Dutch figures, we see that 55% of primary school kids and 42% of the secondary school kids are being driven to school in this State, while in the Netherlands 66% of the kids at primary level and 75% of secondary school kids are getting there under their own steam.

I want to frame a specific question around the Department's technical guidance document. Reference has been made to two points in it. How assiduously are the criteria applied? One states that approaches to school should be from a number of directions. I am not going to do a tour of my constituency in citing my example. I will stay within Tramore. I can point to a relatively new-build secondary school in Tramore where there is one way in and one way out. When we talk about traffic in Tramore, we are really talking about traffic at the secondary school. Unless it is a really busy sunny day and everybody is out for ice creams, there is no other place in Tramore where you will sit in traffic for five or ten minutes. On a rainy day, you could be sitting outside the secondary school for a good while because there is one way in and one way out. The second point referenced in the document mentions excessive vehicular infrastructure, roads, parking and set-down. I could point to a relatively recently refurbished school in Tramore where playground space has been sacrificed for car parking. What are the guidelines around the provision of car parking, particularly on school grounds? How can that conflict with what I would describe as educational outcomes? I will pose those questions first and raise a few other issues if time allows.