Mr. Tom O'Mahony:

Yes, the trends do show an increase in cycling and walking. The difficulty with trends in public transport is that figures for the past number of years were affected by the recession. Obviously with fewer people working, and people less inclined to shop and so on, the numbers have fallen off. The situation has stabilised and we are now beginning to see an increase in numbers.

I do not want to sound over aspirational or naive but the car is still far too dominant as our primary mode of transport. We still have a lot of work to do in this area. The Department is not in any sense anti-car but it is a bit frustrating to see city streets clogged with single driver vehicles which causes delays when there are alternatives available. It is a question of encouraging people more to avail of the alternatives.