Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move to cycling and active travel. I am encouraged by the commitment to active travel I see in the Estimates laid before the committee, and which have been detailed in the Minister's brief. I am particularly encouraged to hear about the Minister's support for the safe routes to school programme. That is an important programme. One things that brings that into more acute focus is that the proportion of children cycling to primary over the past three years has fallen. I would love to hear the Minister's thoughts on how we will prioritise and use the safe routes to school scheme to encourage that potential to go higher, because that is where the habit of cycling is formed. I cycled to school and I cycle in here. I think that is where you form that habit. I am particularly happy to see the greenway plans being advanced. The Grand Canal greenway is under construction in my area at the moment. That is a positive measure.

There is one area I would like to hear the Minister's thoughts on. Outside the BusConnects project, one things I have heard from local residents in an area like, for example, Rathcoole, is that there is not a local management service working with the NTA on local bus priority measures. I would say that the bus priority measures being rolled out at the moment are in the main under the auspices of BusConnects. Is there any scope, or what is the best way in terms of programme management, for local authorities to work directly with the NTA on local bus resolution issues? For example, if there is a village with one road in and one road out, how does one work with the local authority to advance a locally available bus priority measure? Is there a programme in the Department to facilitate that or to encourage it?