Mr. John Martin:

The point about children needing to be brought up using buses and active transport is critical. The NTA administers a programme called safe routes to schools which is an initiative for local authorities to improve the access to schools and improve the zone in front of schools to encourage children getting to school by active transport, cycling, walking and other active travel means. That is very welcome. We need to see more of that. My understanding is that 170 schools currently participate in that programme. Many more are keen to join. We encourage the safe routes to school programme and are trying to roll it out through the NTA. In regard to school transport, we are engaging with the Department of Education on this on an ongoing basis. That is certainly something we can look at.

The communications point is well made. The Department of the Taoiseach has just set up the climate communication co-ordination committee, which looks at co-ordinating the messaging and the narrative on climate across all sectors. It is a whole-of-government approach to ensure we are all saying the same thing and not conflicting and tripping over each other in our climate communications. That group has just been established and will be putting in place a whole-of-government communications strategy to ensure there is consistent messaging that does not get crowded out or cause fatigue for citizens and that is consistent on climate and what we all need to do across all sectors, both by Government and by citizens, to address the climate issue. That is a well-made point and something we need to take on board.