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

Is there any formalised approach whereby the Department sits down with a local authority, the NTA and public transport providers like CIÉ? I ask because things seem piecemeal. As I have said, I could cite the example of that secondary school. It is comfortable to drive there if one is not sat in traffic, but it is not terribly comfortable to go there on a bike - I say that as a confident cyclist - nor is it a very nice environment for walking. One can walk there for sure, but there are parts were kids are creating shortcuts and there are all these desire lines going across as well as the matter of how they integrate into the surrounding estates. That is only one example and I would not base policy on one example, but it is a good illustrative example. As I said, this is significant public investment within a community and it should be unlocking a bunch of co-benefits if it is planned out properly. However, I am not seeing a coherent, joined-up approach whereby all the stakeholders who could really unlock such benefits are sitting down together in a formalised way, although the officials might tell me otherwise.