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

I thank the Senator. Right now, money is not the problem or the constraint. Under our programme for Government, €1 million a day is available for walking and cycling improvements. What better way is there to spend that than to make it safe for children to walk and cycle to school? It has multiple benefits, but part of it is just health and happiness and not making parents have to drive their children to school before they go to work, and so on. It is a very good thing to do.

Any school that did not apply or was not included can go to the local authority. My understanding on the local authorities is that the problem is not the lack of money but that the local authorities are not getting around to spending the money. Local representatives should lobby their local authority to allocate the money and spend it. This is not money which is specially targeted to urban or suburban areas. If a national school is one kilometre outside the village and has no footpath, the money can be spent on footpaths. It does not have to be about cycling and bikes. It can be about making it safe to walk to school; even just providing an option. That is the reason parents do not allow their kids to walk to school. When we do the research about why children are driven to school, it is all about safety. If we can provide a safe route, a safe alternative, we know it will happen. In my county, in one of the schools where interventions were made, 90% of the children are now walking and cycling to school, which is an incredible change from where it had been. It had been about 30%. It can work.

Regarding Leitrim County Council and walking and cycling infrastructure across the river in Rooskey, I know the NTA has granted an allocation for this project in the 2022 active travel allocations and it is expected the local authority should be in a position to have a consultant in place before the end of this year to undertake the initial concept and feasibility study for the provision of a suitable measure at this location. That could be a footpath across the river, a shuttle system or some other intervention.