Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The fact is that the climate action plan got it wrong in a variety of ways. Seeing as we are on the topic right now, one of the main ways the climate action plan got it wrong related to modal shift. It is well and good having ambition for electric vehicles because ambition is good. I was home-schooling my nine year old today. I think that if I showed her the figures for electric vehicles that the Minister outlined - 15,000 today; 180,000 in five years' time; and a million in 2030 - she would say that does not really add up. That said, ambition is good. The problem is why there has not been ambition in other areas. The key area is modal shift. It is totally viable, despite what Deputy Durkan might be afraid of when it comes to children walking to school, that the majority of school trips across the country would be done via active travel. Roads are dangerous in some places but it is absolutely possible to build infrastructure with a quick return that allows children to walk and cycle to school. It is not rocket science and countries all over Europe are doing it. It costs money and I contend that a lot of the money in the Department over the past few years has been ill directed.

We would have had better returns if there had been more focus on modal shift and building the infrastructure to facilitate it. It is a tragedy, in a way, because there were some actions in the climate action plan that were put down the priority scale which would have us in a different position now during the Covid-19 crisis. Our cities would have been better equipped to facilitate cycling and walking. There is an appetite for those things and there has been a response from the ground up as some local authorities are progressing initiatives off their own bats, but it really needs also to come from the top down as well. That has not been heard over the past few years. That said, I acknowledge that the Minister wrote to the local authorities, at my request, some weeks back to encourage them to start reallocating space. I acknowledge that and thank him for doing so.

I have some quick questions which I might ask in two or three tranches.

How many local authorities have responded to what I believe was an offer from the NTA of some technical and financial assistance to reallocate that road space? Can the Minister give me an update on one of the targets from the climate action plan in respect of transport and emissions? I refer to the proposal to establish a park-and-ride development office in the NTA which, if it had been up and running on time, would also have made a difference.

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