Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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245. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when the public transport shareholders' forum will be established as is provided for in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51580/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Government launched the National Sustainable Mobility Policy (SMP) in April 2022. The SMP sets out a framework for active travel and public transport to support Ireland’s overall requirement to achieve a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and seeks to ensure that the development of active travel and public transport infrastructure are fully integrated. As part of this integrated approach, the existing commitment in the Programme for Government to establish a National Public Transport Forum was incorporated into the National Sustainable Mobility Policy as a commitment to convene a National Sustainable Mobility Forum to engage with all stakeholders on progress in relation to the SMP.

A further commitment in the SMP was the establishment of a Leadership Group to oversee implementation of the policy and delivery of its Action Plan. The intention of this Leadership Group is that the National Sustainable Mobility Forum, which it intends to hold on an annual basis, will provide an opportunity for regular engagement and interaction with a wide range of stakeholders, and that this Forum will be a crucial mechanism to ensure that implementation of the SMP is progressed on schedule. The Department of Transport intends to convene the first National Sustainable Mobility Forum in Q2 2023 to coincide with the first anniversary of the launch of the SMP. This will be an opportune moment to take stock of progress made during the SMP's first year, as well as to look towards the next steps required to deliver on the SMP’s core objective of achieving an additional 500,000 daily active travel and public transport journeys and a 10% reduction in kilometres driven by fossil-fuelled cars by 2030.