Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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317. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the progress achieved by the end of 2024 on the targets to deliver at least 500,000 additional daily active travel and public transport journeys by 2030; and to achieve a 10% reduction in the number of kilometres driven by fossil fuelled cars. [11486/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The National Sustainable Mobility Policy (SMP) was published in April 2022. At the time of publication, the Policy sought to support the achievement of targets set out in Climate Action Plan 2021 (CAP21), namely at least 500,000 additional daily active travel and public transport journeys by 2030 and a 10% reduction in the number of kilometres driven by fossil-fuelled cars.

It was noted in the SMP that those targets might be subject to revision in later iterations of the Climate Action Plan once agreement had been reached on the Sectoral Emissions Ceilings (SECs). This subsequently occurred with the publication of Climate Action Plan 2023 (CAP23), which was developed after the agreement on the SECs, and following a recalibration exercise carried out using the NTA’s Regional Modelling System to identify a series of measures that could collectively achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions in the transport sector by 2030. These updated Climate Action Plan 2023 targets comprise a 50% increase in daily active travel journeys, and a 130% increase in daily public transport journeys by 2030 compared to 2018, and a 20% reduction in total vehicle kilometres travelled (relative to a Business-As-Usual projected scenario for 2030).

Data on progress related to these targets is provided through a variety of sources, including the annual National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) carried out by the National Transport Authority (NTA), the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) National Travel Survey, NTA Bus and Rail statistics, NTA figures on Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus journeys and traffic counts on the National Roads Networks. These inputs are received with differing degrees of frequency and therefore full figures to the end of 2024 cannot be provided at this time.

Nonetheless, I can advise that PSO journeys to the end of 2024 had increased by 23.69% relative to 2018. The strong growth in that year saw a milestone of one million PSO journeys a day being reached in October 2024. However, figures for the additional public transport journeys operated by commercial entities in 2024, which on average account for 5% to 10% of total journeys, are not yet available, so the figure of 23.69% does not represent the entirety of the public transport journeys taken in that year.

In terms of Active Travel, the primary source of data available is through the National Household Travel Survey which is carried out on an annual basis. As such, the most effective means of measuring progress in delivering this target is through measuring the increase in mode share for active travel journeys. It has been calculated that it will be necessary to reach a mode share of 28% of journeys taking place through active means by 2030 in order to achieve the target of a 50% increase in daily active travel journeys. The NHTS showed that the mode share in 2023 was 20%. Figures for the 2024 NHTS are not yet available.

As for total vehicle kilometres travelled, figures to end-2023 showed that vehicle kilometres travelled were -11.63% below the projected Business-As-Usual reference scenario for 2030 modelled by the NTA, while the figure in 2022 was -10.81% below. This reference scenario incorporates projected demographic growth to 2030, and the slight decrease in kilometres travelled in 2023 relative to 2022 despite an increase in population can be seen as a positive sign that efforts to reduce vehicle kilometres travelled are beginning to effect change.