Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice in welcoming our guests from Moyle Park College and the Isle of Man. My home village of Rathangan hosted the Isle of Man delegation for the Special Olympics held in Ireland in 2003. We built up a very strong relationship, so the delegation is incredibly welcome.

I welcome the survey published yesterday on the best towns in the country to live in. Two towns in County Mayo, Ballina and Castlebar, featured, as well as Longford. Newbridge, where I live, was identified as the safest town in Ireland. It is a great town to live in and it is great to see it recognised. I thank the Garda for keeping us safe.

I wish to raise a few issues, mainly concerning different forms of transport, including on the water and also cycling. Cycle Right is the national standard for cycle training. It provides practical cycle safety and skills training for children and is carried out in some schools. I only came across it a few months ago in Scoil Na Naomh Uilig in Newbridge. This is a fantastic programme that shows children how to cycle safely to and from school, as well as in their own leisure time. It is supported by the Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority, RSA. There is, though, an issue with funding in the particular school I was working with on this programme. Unfortunately, it cannot access any funding from Kildare County Council to make it available free of charge to children. This is an extremely important scheme and we should look at it from the perspective of education and transport. I would like the Leader's support in asking that this programme be rolled out to all schools around the country because it is important.

Turning to waterways, I had the opportunity on Monday to visit a barge in Robertstown. County Kildare has two canals passing through it, the Royal Canal and the Grand Canal. Barges were very much a feature of the day when all goods were carried in that fashion. An extremely innovative approach has been taken in Robertstown. The village does not have a community centre, so the community there has restored the barge and it is now serving as the Robertstown community centre. In fact, ukulele classes are held there on a Monday night. The mayor of County Kildare, Daragh Fitzpatrick, held the annual general meeting of Kildare County Council there during the summer as well. It is wonderful work and thanks are owed to Peter Dunne who spearheaded the endeavour. This shows what we can do.

There is also a barge in Athy in County Kildare and this was used by the local community for functions, events and as a tourism project to link in with the Ernest Shackleton Museum. There is concern now that this is not going to happen any longer. We must, therefore, ensure that funding is put in place to support that barge, as well as the blueway and the greenway. We have an opportunity in Rathangan in this regard. The blueway is fantastic. I had the Minister of State down to visit recently. We have plans to put a pedestrian bridge in place, but there is a shortfall in the required funding of €3.5 million. It is vitally needed. We must get this national funding to deliver the project.