Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State mentioned two key things, which are the public engagement piece and that piece around road space reallocation. Any of the representatives here know that reallocation of road space can be contentious and we can get a lot of pushback on it, so public engagement is critical. I wonder whether we are recruiting into the active travel teams across all of the local authorities in a way that answers not just that technical need. Of course, the active travel teams need engineers but we also need experts in placemaking in order that when we do that road space reallocation, the entire street looks better. It is also critical that we have community outreach skills and that we have not just people who can explain what a drawing in front of them is saying in terms of turning radii and so on, but also people who can explain the positive community benefits of things like road space reallocation, slowing down traffic, encouraging people to walk and cycle, and how the whole community stands to benefit from that. That communication skill, that community outreach piece, is of critical importance.

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