Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One element that the Minister did not touch on is the school bus transport system. I know that technically it falls under the remit of the Department of Education but it is very clear that there is an interdepartmental responsibility in terms of transport and encouraging people out of private cars and onto the school bus transport system. I would urge the Minister to work with his colleague, the Minister for Education, on opportunities to expand the school bus transport scheme. Bus Éireann has set out its ambitions up to 2030 but I firmly believe its targets are not ambitious enough and the company needs to improve on that.

The Minister will have my full support for efforts to increase active travel to school and I urge him to be even more ambitious in that regard. In recent days the Minister referred to the planning system and possible changes to ensure that some active travel measures, including cycleways, can be approved. I ask him to expand on that and to outline his intentions in that regard.

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