Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development
Embracing Ireland's Outdoors - National Outdoor Recreation Strategy 2023-2027: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Fintan O'Brien:
There is a couple of things there. Intuitively, we would all say we have seen a huge uptick in walking but as the Deputy said, it needs to be more scientific. There is an amount of work being put into trail counters in terms of getting quantifiable data. That is much more important than just saying that we see it or we feel it is happening. We have an annual report on progress under the strategy which will track delivery of the actions as we go. The next one is going to Comhairle na Tuaithe shortly and it will then be published. Towards the end of this year, as the Chair referenced in his opening remarks, we will be doing a proper evaluation of where it all stands, what has been achieved and what might need to be tweaked halfway through. I agree with the Deputy that getting data to underpin our evaluation is really important in terms of making sure that significant funding is invested in the right way.
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