Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to join colleagues in congratulating the 170 schools that were successful in their applications to the Safe Routes to School programme. It is a really welcome programme, to which there were over 900 applications. Indeed, one in four schools made an application, which shows that there is huge public interest and appetite for the programme. I want to congratulate all of the schools in Dublin Central that applied. Six were successful including St. Catherine's on Ratoath Road, Broombridge Educate Together, the Central Model Senior School, Drumcondra National School. I congratulate all of the school communities that were involved in making those applications. The programme teaches children about mental and physical health, as well as independence and resilience, which are real-life skills in the context of walking, cycling and scootering to school. All of the schools are to be congratulated and I urge the Minister to increase the funding for that programme.

I would also like to raise the DART south west project, which is being progressed by the National Transport Authority, NTA. This is a really important service, potentially connecting Hazelhatch with the city centre, but it is really disappointing that the NTA proposal does not include a stop on that route in Cabra. There is the potential for a stop there which would give more than 20,000 people living in the area direct access to what will be hugely important public transport infrastructure. I am sad to say that this follows the NTA's failure to include a stop in Ballybough or in or around Croke Park as part of the Maynooth DART upgrade. I would urge everybody who is interested to make a submission to the public consultation on DART south west, which is being conducted at the moment.

Finally, I wish to raise the issue of taxi drivers again. I acknowledge that the Minister for Transport has put some supports in place for them. He has waived the vehicle licence fees and provided for NCT fee refunds but I ask the Leader to urge the Minister to address two issues. The grant for electric vehicles should be extended to hybrid vehicles and the life cycle extension for vehicles should be pushed out to 2025 at a minimum.