Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Minister's points about the simplicity of the scheme at the minute, bikes being stolen, Garda reports and so on. I do not want to focus on that point; I want to focus on the second amendment from Deputy Nash in respect of school and college, particularly the latter part. The school part would be challenging because every child could avail of it in that case and it would be difficult, and many children have bikes. However, there is a genuine point that Deputy Nash has made in respect of young adults who are cycling to college in the city and elsewhere, who may be from the country. We talk about congestion and about forming good habits in that respect. There is no better time. It is important to start very young but it is appropriate to encourage somebody who may not be on the bike any more to take up a bike and travel into DCU or UCD, or down to Cork or Galway. Under the existing scheme, qualifying journeys are described as being to and from a place of work. I do not think it would take too much imagination, where an employer is satisfied to do this, to allow for the bike to be purchased for a student in a qualifying third level institution who is going to travel to and from that place of work. The intention behind this scheme is about moving people away from carbon types of travel to environmentally sustainable types of travel. When we are talking about students, in most cases we are talking about third level institutions located in large towns and cities. It could only be of benefit. I just think there is merit in considering at least that part of what Deputy Nash said.