Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and congratulate her on her appointment. The majority of the local schools I represent in Dublin are digesting the guidelines released yesterday. I welcome them, and particularly the elements relating to minor works, well-being and increased teaching resources.The challenge now is for each school to apply these plans in a bespoke way, to identify what specific supports are needed to ensure public safety and peace of mind, and for the Minister's Department to deliver those.

There is an opportunity I would like to highlight today which straddles the July job stimulus and schools. There is no doubt that we have an ongoing issue when it comes to traffic, congestion and parking around schools. It is appallingly bad and dangerous. We need to get people out of cars by giving them alternative transport modes where possible. If a third of us continue to work from home it would seem like a good opportunity to invest in a long-term behavioural change where parents do not have the same commuting pressure and will have more flexibility to try to embed something new.

A total of €113 million in the July stimulus package has been ring-fenced for active travel, public transport and transport infrastructure. I propose to the Minister that she use a portion of that to-----