Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Climate Action and Sustainable Development Education: Discussion.

Photo of Paul KehoePaul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Okay, Ms Murphy is from Dublin. I presume none of the rest of our guests are from rural Ireland and are from urban centres. If Ms Doyle takes County Wexford, we now have bus services from almost 85% of the villages in our county which operate four, five or six times a day going into the main town centres.

An awful lot of people are crying out for these services yet when you see the bus pulling up, there might be only two people on it and there could be six cars following the bus going into the urban centre. How do we convince people to use the bus rather than follow the bus into the town centre? All of us are talking about climate, as well as people shouting and roaring for all these services. I am only asking for the witnesses' opinion. We as politicians try to do it all the time and we succeed in some cases but in more cases, we do not. I find those of the younger generation are the same. They are quick to jump into a car as a person aged 40, 50 or 60. If we are not going to convince 21-, 22- and 23-year-olds to use bus services, it will be difficult. We all talk about how this is going to be a generational change but if it is to be a generational change, we should see people in their late teens not driving to school but, rather, using the school bus or other public transport that has been provided for them in rural areas. We should not see them jumping into the car. I know they cannot get a bus service everywhere. Public transport has improved majorly over the years but we only see the change in the urban centres; we do not see it in rural areas.