Delivery of Public and Active Travel
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister for Transport the outputs from the climate delivery transport task force since its establishment, as indicated in the Climate Action Plan 2023 Annex of Actions; the specific areas and initiatives of climate delivery that are currently under its focus; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30185/23]
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
The climate action plan has now set out the sectoral emissions targets reductions that we want to achieve. I am aware that across different sectors, we have put in place climate delivery task forces. The decarbonisation of our transport is probably one of the most difficult areas for us to tackle. What specific areas and initiatives of climate delivery are currently under the focus of the climate delivery transport task force since its establishment?
Deputy Jack Chambers
I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on the transport delivery task force as set out in the Climate Action Plan 2023, CAP23. As the Deputy will know, the Government has established six climate delivery task forces in key sectoral areas. Transport’s task force is known as the sustainable mobility policy, SMP, leadership group.
Of the 15 transport-related work programmes identified in the Annex of Actions in CAP23, ten fall under the remit of the SMP leadership group. Not surprisingly, these programmes are specifically concerned with integrating sustainable mobility into our transport system and encouraging a shift to the use of more sustainable modes, such as walking, cycling and public transport. The overall output will be the delivery of the 91 actions under the related sustainable mobility policy. The policy itself was published in April 2022 and the SMP leadership group was established a month later, thus predating the publication of the Climate Action Plan 2023.
Since its establishment, the SMP leadership group has optimised conditions for success by establishing a delivery team to support the work of the task force and by applying best practice principles of project management, including a workshop-based approach to mitigating potential delivery risks; launched a pathfinder programme, consisting of 35 exemplar projects that can showcase the benefits of sustainable mobility and build buy-in for similar projects nationwide; established a research network to help focus resources on research priorities that are critical to providing an evidence base for delivery of key objectives under the SMP; brought forward the development of a climate action communications and public engagement strategy; and convened the first annual national sustainable mobility forum to engage with stakeholders on sustainable mobility.
This approach has yielded significant progress on various infrastructure projects and services, such as the introduction of the country’s first all-electric bus fleet in Athlone, a new young adult travel card allowing students and young people to avail of a 50% reduction in travel fares and the commencement of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan, delivering new and enhanced bus services across the country.
Moving forward, the leadership group will continue to oversee implementation of the sustainable mobility plan and related actions required under CAP23. It is intended that the Minister will shortly publish the leadership group’s first annual progress report related to the SMP.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
There is no doubt that considerable headway has been made, particularly in terms of public transport. We see across Europe many countries struggling to get transport numbers back to pre-Covid levels whereas, here in Ireland, we have not only rebounded but exceeded that. Anybody who is using public transport these days can see the number of people travelling and I am always struck, particularly on the Waterford to Dublin train, by the number of young people travelling. That is directly to do with the decreased fares for younger people.
I would like to know more about the position on delivery of the pathfinder programmes. Those are hugely ambitious projects and the timeline is very tight. It is very positive what we have done in regard to rural public transport. Although these figures are already out of date, we had 107 new services in 104 weeks, which is more than one extra service a week and I am sure even that has changed since then. However, integration is critical and I am not sure we are getting that piece right yet in terms of how we integrate active travel, such as walking and cycling modes, into our public transport nodes to make it as seamless as possible.
Deputy Jack Chambers
The pathfinder programme, consisting of 35 sustainable mobility projects, will be delivered around the country over the next three years. The programme, which was launched in October 2022, aims to bring increased momentum to the delivery of projects at a local level, providing templates that can be replicated elsewhere with a strong emphasis on experimental and innovative approaches.
The 35 projects selected to form part of the programme encompass the following: significant road space reallocation projects favouring active travel, particularly within the five cities, but also within several towns across the country; large-scale investments in public transport, including in Waterford and Limerick; exemplar 15-minute towns, such as Letterkenny and Killarney; cycling networks and corridors across several counties, including Longford, Wexford and Sligo; innovative pilot projects such as two in Leitrim which will trial creative shared mobility solutions in rural areas; engagement in research projects, including capacity building workshops, which will take place across the country; and a particular focus on expanding the safe routes to school programme and accelerating access to schools and universities by sustainable means. There has been great progress on many of these and we will see increased roll-out in the coming period.
Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh
The Minister of State mentioned two key things, which are the public engagement piece and that piece around road space reallocation. Any of the representatives here know that reallocation of road space can be contentious and we can get a lot of pushback on it, so public engagement is critical. I wonder whether we are recruiting into the active travel teams across all of the local authorities in a way that answers not just that technical need. Of course, the active travel teams need engineers but we also need experts in placemaking in order that when we do that road space reallocation, the entire street looks better. It is also critical that we have community outreach skills and that we have not just people who can explain what a drawing in front of them is saying in terms of turning radii and so on, but also people who can explain the positive community benefits of things like road space reallocation, slowing down traffic, encouraging people to walk and cycle, and how the whole community stands to benefit from that. That communication skill, that community outreach piece, is of critical importance.
Deputy Jack Chambers
I fully agree. It is very important in all of the investment decisions and change that we are trying to make that we bring people with us. People need clear messaging and awareness of climate action and the other benefits of sustainable mobility, including the benefits to individuals, families, communities and businesses. Achieving a shift to zero or low carbon transfer modes, including active travel and public transport, will require significant buy-in.
There is a lot of work going on. As part of the national sustainable mobility policy, there is development and implementation of a public engagement strategy to promote the benefits of sustainable mobility and to raise public awareness of options. There is a new and enhanced option as part of the climate action plan this year which provides for the development of that strategy. The roll-out of that is co-ordinated across the Department of Transport and other agencies within transport to underpin the strategy.
As the Deputy said, there has been significant recruitment in local authorities across active travel so they can get the roll-out of the capital investment. There is full engagement as part of the communications strategy to make sure we bring people with us. With regard to demand management, a key part of that is the communications piece. In any decisions that will be made, there has to be engagement and community buy-in.
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