Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. The safe routes to school programme was developed by the NTA in partnership with An Taisce's Green-Schools in 2020 as a response to the need to support schools to increase walking and cycling to school. The aims of the programme are to improve safety at school gates by providing front-of-school treatments to alleviate congestion and improve access; to improve access routes to schools by improving walking and cycling infrastructure; and to increase the number of students who actually cycle to school by expanding the amount of cycle parking available. Parked cars on footpaths create dangerous situations and restrict access for everyone, especially young children, parents with buggies and wheelchair users. The scheme has helped to transform the accessibility of schools up and down the country and should be expanded further. I can think of many schools in Tipperary alone where there are dangerous situations at pick-up and drop-off times.

The programme opened in 2021 and there has been good uptake in the two funding rounds. Approximately 900 schools applied for funding under the programme and 170 were notified on 30 June 2021 that they were successful. There was a second round and just over 100 schools were successful but obviously, there are thousands of schools across the country. As with any scheme that is set up, and we saw this with the hot school meals programme, some schools do it quite quickly while others do not. Some schools are not sure and a lot of people did not understand the programme at the time but there is definitely a demand for it right across the country, especially in rural areas.

In the context of next week's budget, I am calling for additional funding for this programme. The view in the Department seems to be that all of the schools that apply for funding will be successful over time but there are thousands of schools that have yet to apply for it. Given the impending reduction in speed limits to enhance road safety, this programme is much-needed and there is huge demand for it. There is an opportunity here for us to do more. We all know of schools in our area where it is extremely dangerous. I just started bringing my child to school two weeks ago. It is a lovely country school but I can see the danger every morning and the possibility of something happening. The more we invest in safe routes to school and in improving the ease of access into schools, the better. I ask that something is done on that in the forthcoming budget.