Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate the response and I understand the challenges. I understand the funding challenges and that this scheme started in 2020, but it is disappointing that only 77 of the 930 projects have been done. While I fully understand that Covid happened, when a scheme is put in place people want it to be delivered as quickly as possible.

This has not only happened in Tipperary. The issue has been raised with me by Councillor Gareth Scahill in Roscommon, who has seen it in schools in Castlerea. He also has a young family and he knows the challenges facing parents. He made the very good point that there is a suggestion that the council can pay for this through its roads funding. Councils have their own challenges with roads funding, including what they can pay for and how much they have each year. They seem to be losing money as opposed to receiving extra money for new funding schemes. If we are going to do this scheme, it needs to be done through Department funding rather than council funding because most councils cannot allocate funding to it.

While I welcome this programme, it has been slow to get off the ground. It makes a big difference to schools and parents dropping kids to school. The more it is used and the quicker it is done, the better. As the Minister of State said, its implementation has been speeding up in the last year or so, but the more we can do, the better.