Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I am very conscious of time and want to provide the key information to the Deputy. I will set out the details of very specific schemes to support active travel, particularly for our student population, which is the key consideration in the question.

My Department funds the delivery of CycleRight training through Cycling Ireland which delivers cycling training to school children around the country and equips them with the skills to cycle safely. In partnership with the Department of Education we also launched the Safe Routes to Schools programme earlier this year which aims to accelerate the delivery of safe walking, scooting and cycling infrastructure on key access routes to schools. By the deadline for expressions of interest in April, over 900 applications had been received from schools in every county in Ireland and 170 schools were notified on 21 June that they have been selected for inclusion in the first round of the programme to support walking and cycling infrastructure for primary and post-primary schools. All schools that initially applied for funding under this programme will not need to reapply in later rounds as they will come into the programme on a rolling basis. Finally, my Department also provides funding for the Smarter Travel Workplaces and the Smarter Travel Campus programmes,which are overseen by the NTA. These are national voluntary behaviour-change programmes that work with large employers and third level institutions to implement workplace travel plans that facilitate sustainable travel on the commute and beyond.

The step change in funding for active travel in both urban and rural areas together with the commitments to improved and expanded public transport projects should work towards providing our citizens, including students travelling to and from school and college, with a viable alternative to private car use and should encourage a modal shift towards sustainable transport modes, whether walking, cycling, bus, tram or train.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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On that last point, the Deputy will be aware of the High Court's decision this summer with regard to Strand Road in Sandymount. I will not go into the specific details of that case but there is real concern that the judgment might have a chilling effect on the delivery of our Safe Routes to School infrastructure, our BusConnects infrastructure and other active travel infrastructure, as well as on our decarbonisation plans which require innovative and quick traffic management schemes. To address concerns about any potential chilling effect of the judgment, we have tried to see what we can do to help. We have determined that a Committee Stage amendment to what was the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will now be called the Road Traffic Bill, due for debate this autumn will provide us with an opportunity to give greater clarity and greater responsibility back to councils by giving councillors a clear say on these matters. We will put down in statute mechanisms to allow experimental traffic measures to be carried out which will help councils to innovate and test out various traffic management options. I have asked my Department, in consultation with the Attorney General's office, to start drafting amendments that we may introduce on Committee Stage that might help in that regard.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I expect the review to be concluded very shortly. I have not had a chance to see it yet but I understand a draft version is very close to being presented by the NTA. The first thing will be the NDP review. As I said on radio the other day, and am happy to repeat here today, I expect some €35 billion in our overall capital allocation for the next decade. A lot of the projects we need to deliver we have to think about in a 2040 context, such is the scale of the investment we need to make. I refer here to DART+, Metro, BusConnects, metropolitan rail in Cork, Galway and Waterford as well as Dublin, Rural Link and Connecting Ireland. We need an incredible array of projects and it is going to take two decades to deliver a lot of them. The Navan rail line is just one example of the myriad of projects which make real sense in my mind, as I have said in this Chamber previously. I have not seen the NTA's draft report yet but I hope that Navan may be included. We will certainly support it within the NDP but I cannot give specific timelines and start dates because we have such difficulties with our planning system in getting any projects through the planning process in any reasonable timeframe. Planning approval is the first prerequisite.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. I have specific timelines to implement as well so we must move on to the next question.