Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I should have congratulated the Deputy at the outset on his appointment as party spokesperson on transport. I look forward to working with him and colleagues like Deputy Crowe to advance our plans and objectives over the course of this. On safe routes to school, in my home town of Malahide, we delivered another safe route to school outside Pope John Paul II school. The delays to that were on the basis of the public engagement required. I would not underestimate the amount of engagement that takes place with regard to these schemes.

School principals have been very good and the schools want it. I refer to adjacent communities. That project was held up for nearly a year because of two or three residents, who are entitled to their view. Changes have been made. I am a massive supporter of safe routes to school and school streets, which I would like to see more of. That is basically where effectively the section of road outside the school is closed at pick-up and drop-off times. This helps in changing habits. I have noted the reduction in the number of schoolchildren cycling, and we need to reverse that. We have some significant active travel schemes in place. There was one in north County Dublin with 3.5 km of safe walking and cycling infrastructure in Balbriggan, which links six schools, 7,000 residents, sports clubs – everything. It was transformational. Limerick was referenced. It has its own greenway as well but we need to do more. I am pleased to see that local authorities are really up for this work. The active travel officers and teams want this to accelerate, and we will do so. I mentioned earlier - I know the Deputy wants this as well - that I will be seeking additional funding through the NDP review. We have €360 million allocated per year over the term of this Government, which is significant. If we can get more funding and deliver more, we will.

On bus priority measures, the NTA has funded development of local transport plans for smaller towns across the country. These plans include identifying the bus priority measures in the towns. We then look at them and how we can help local authorities deliver the measures. I will take that, and any specific items, up with the NTA. I said last night that I have engaged with the NTA as well. It is an excellent organisation. We need to be more cognisant within the NTA of local knowledge and specific routes. I have experience of this. I will make the commitment that we need to find a mechanism for a ground-up review, which is the user - the customer - view. I said in my opening statement that, in everything we do in transport, I want the transport user to be first. It is not just that a bus operator or the NTA may look at a route and say which the optimal one is. Local knowledge is important. To be fair to them, they do engage. I am trying to see whether there is a better way. It came up last night in relation to other parts of Dublin as well, and the need to invest in existing services. There is a big push for new routes, and I am all for that too, but with regard to population growth, particularly in the Deputy’s constituency, I fully get that. We can ensure that, at a constituency or regional level, we work with our local authorities. Our transport SPCs are critically important as well. We will do that.