Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Challenge and Opportunity for Local Authorities in Climate Action: Discussion

Photo of Brian LeddinBrian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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It seems like the demand management piece and the political challenge around that and how we use space on our streets and our roads is going to be hugely challenging. I do not think we have a choice here. So many of our streets are limited in width. We see it on Capel Street and we see it on the quays. I come up every Tuesday morning and I cycle from Heuston Station to Leinster House and the change is incredible. It may be by accident, because Dublin City Council has been trying to put in some segregated infrastructure for ten years, but it seized the moment when Covid-19 came along. It is there now and proven. I see the number of cyclists who are using it. While I am not suggesting we should have another pandemic, I pay tribute to Dublin City Council and other local authorities on the work, including my own in Limerick. They have done some very good work and they took that chance. We need to see a lot more of that reallocation of road space and a lot more thinking around parking, removing parking and, as Mr. Mahon said, getting the cars out of our towns and our villages and reducing the net total of private vehicles in the system.

I thank the witnesses for those answers. I have interrogated them for long enough so we will finish up. I thank them sincerely for coming in and for their time and contributions and the hard work they do in the various offices at local level. So much of climate action is going to be channelled through them and I certainly wish them well.

Central government and the Oireachtas generally want this to work. It is important we hear those calls.

The calls for resources are timely. That is a strong message. We will certainly relay it back. I thank all the contributors.