Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, to the Seanad. We met recently in Athlone at the launch of the new bridge across the River Shannon connecting the east to the west for the Dublin to Galway cycleway. In fact, as the Minister of State mentioned on the day, we will be able to cycle from Moscow to Galway. This is an incredible piece of infrastructure that shows the progress of the national development plan. Those pieces of infrastructure are absolutely crucial, particularly coming into the west which lacks public areas such as parks. What that will deliver for communities is incredible. It will be a safe place to walk and cycle. The Minister of State knows how much this means for communities in the west.

The motion is very well thought out. There is an acknowledgement that regional and rural areas have challenges.We would like to cycle but it is not a case of being able to cycle ten or 20 miles. In my constituency area it takes an hour and a half to travel from one end to the other. It is incredible to think that we can achieve all of this through cycling and walking, and we do not have rail network services to every single town.

In terms of public transport, it is important that our roads network is supported by the provision of buses as they will enable people to get to where they need to go. The Connecting Ireland initiative was launched this week after this motion was put together. It is so important that the initiative is rolled out as it will develop the Local Link services and connect towns that are currently not connected.

Bus shelters have been mentioned. As a councillor I got to invest my notice of motion funds in a temporary bus shelter in Ballinasloe. I hope that with the National Transport Authority we will consider the creation of further bus shelters, particularly for the winter when people will be drowned by the rain, winds and storms.

I am happy to see the progress and development of transport that has taken place under the remit of the Minister of State in our areas. I acknowledge the phenomenal Safe Routes to School programme. It considers ways to ensure that there are safe places, particularly on narrow country roads, where there is not even a footpath to protect people when they drop or collect children from school. We know what it is like with the pick-up and drop-off zones. I thank the Minister of State.