Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is so important, as the NTA knows. It is when people will actually make their modal shift. If we plan them as active travel nodes so that a person can cycle safely to them, there are good lock-ups, and they walk onto a bus or whatever, which then connects to the onward service, that is when it will really make a difference. The death of modal shift is spending 40 minutes standing at the famous Limerick Junction, with the wind cutting you in two.

I have a bunch of questions I will return to in the next round, on real-time updaters, bus stops and, God help us, bus stops in rural settings, but I will put a couple of questions to the Department on the public sector performance reports. Looking at its key performance indicators, KPIs, on cycling infrastructure, we do a lot in terms of measuring kilometres, but we do not seem to do a lot in terms of monitoring use. I worry that confuses two things. It incentivises building a convenient cycling route out in the middle of nowhere. We could all probably think of examples. My other concern is around two of the NTA's key impacts, namely, the number of people walking into Dublin city centre as a percentage of modal share and the number of people cycling into Dublin city centre as a percentage of modal share. My question on that is obvious. Those are very Dublin-centric KPIs. What does the Department plan to do? I point out, and this is not to do with walking and cycling, that the earliest train that will get you from Kilkenny to Waterford arrives at 9.45 a.m. The earliest train that will get you from Clonmel into Waterford is 11.30 a.m. A lot of our transport systems seem to be very efficient at getting people to Dublin. The two KPIs I referenced are about how we get people around Dublin. There is life outside the Pale. Is the Department considering changing these KPIs to reflect that?