Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Murphy for raising the safe routes to school programme and providing me with the opportunity to address the Seanad about this topic on behalf of the Minister for Transport.

The programme for Government sets out an ambitious and wide-ranging set of commitments in relation to walking and cycling. It committed that €360 million in cross-government funding would be spent on walking and cycling every year over the lifetime of the Government. This is equivalent to 20% of the 2020 transport capital budget. This investment is helping to support the planned delivery of almost 1,000 km of improved walking and cycling infrastructure by 2025 and additional investment in greenways.

Earlier this year, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced an allocation of €289 million for active travel in 2022 and an additional investment of €60 million for greenways. This year's allocation builds on significant progress. In recent years, expenditure on and delivery of active travel projects has increased substantially. It has quadrupled from approximately €45 million in 2019 to €184 million in 2021 and this high level of funding will continue in 2023.

The National Transport Authority, NTA, works with local authorities to allocate this funding to specific projects. In 2022, Roscommon County Council received €3.2 million in active travel funding, while Leitrim County Council received €2 million. Provision for projects under the safe routes to school programme in both local authority areas is included in this funding. The programme was launched by the Department of Transport in 2021 and it has the aim of supporting walking, scooting and cycling to primary and post-primary schools and creating safer walking and cycling routes within communities through the provision of infrastructure interventions.There was a fantastic response to the call which was sent to all schools in the country. Some 931 applications received and 170 schools were notified on 21 June 2021 that they had been selected for inclusion in the first round of the programme. Two schools have since deferred their applications and one school has withdrawn, leaving 167 schools in round 1. It should be noted that all schools that applied to the original call for applications were accepted into the programme. If not selected in round 1, they will be selected for forthcoming rounds.

The safe routes to school, SRTS, team in the NTA, and An Taisce have confirmed that no schools in Rooskey, County Roscommon, itself applied to the programme. The nearest school to Rooskey that was included in round 1 of the programme is Scoil Mhuire in Newtown Forbes, County Longford, which is currently at options development phase. There are five schools in County Roscommon which applied and were selected for round 1 of the safe routes to school programme. These are Carrick National School, Ballinlough, and Scoil Náisiúnta Cruacháin, Croghan, which are also at options development phase, and St. Joseph’s National School, Coláiste Chiaráin, Summerhill, Athlone, and St Paul’s National School, Castlerea, which are at preliminary design phase.

In terms of overall progress under the safe routes to school programme, 17 schools had front-of-school measures completed under the programme, 16 schools are in the detailed design phase and three are under construction. The remainder are under development or design or are involved in statutory processes or public consultation. In addition, under a separate branch of the programme, 303 schools have had cycle parking installed. Since its launch, about €3 million has been spent to date. Due to the overwhelming initial response to the programme, with over one quarter of all schools in the country submitting an application, there are currently no plans for an additional call for schools to join the programme at this time. It is worth noting that schools which did not apply to the programme may be eligible for mainstream active travel funding towards walking and cycling interventions. Schools seeking such funding should contact their local authority directly.