Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton, alongside the National Transport Authority and Santa Claus, has announced that 108 schools will be included in the Safe Routes to School Programme.
The programme aims to create safer walking and cycling routes within communities, alleviate congestion at the school gates, and increase the number of students who walk or cycle to school by providing improvements to walking and cycling facilities.
The launch of the second round of the programme will see more than 37,000 students across Ireland benefit from safer infrastructure and encourage them to cycle, walk, and wheel to school.
The Galway schools included in this round are Coláiste Iognáid, Sea Road; Gaelscoil Dara, Ballyloughane Road, Renmore; Scoil Fhursa, Nile Lodge; Ballinderreen NS, Ballinderreen, Kilcolgan; Gort Community School, Gort; Scoil na bhForbacha, An Spideal; Scoil Sailearna, Indreabhán; and St Brendan's NS, Mount Pleasant, Loughrea.
“I am delighted to be able to bring some festive cheer to schools nationwide by confirming that thousands of more children nationwide will soon benefit from safer infrastructure which will allow them to walk, cycle, and scoot to school every day," Minister Naughton said.
“In recent months I have had the privilege of visiting schools across the country and have seen first-hand the positive impact that Safe Routes to School projects are having on our children’s daily lives. During these visits the message was loud and clear that there is a huge appetite for the continued rollout of the Safe Routes to School programme in our villages, towns, and cities across the country. Now, having secured the necessary funding as part of Budget 2023, it is great to see the programme continue to go from strength to strength.
"My ambition is that every child in Ireland will have the option to make their daily commute to the classroom by foot, bicycle, or scooter in a way that they are safe and protected; one that I am confident is shared among children, their parents, teachers, and the wider school community."
CEO of the National Transport Authority, Anne Graham, added: “The National Transport Authority is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of Safe Routes to School projects right across the country. Our Active Travel team is already working closely with local authorities on the rollout of the round one schemes, and it has been encouraging to see more young people cycling, walking/scooting to school as a result.
“In collaboration with An Taisce Green-Schools and the local authorities, we will now begin working on delivering the second tranche of projects. By working with school communities at a local level to make journeys safer than ever before, we can continue encouraging young people to use more sustainable modes of transport.”
The programme is funded by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority (NTA ) and is supported by the Department of Education. An Taisce’s Green-Schools is co-ordinating the programme, while funding will be made available to local authorities which will play a key part in delivering the infrastructure. Funding totalling €20m has been allocated for projects included in round two with the funds coming from each local authority’s annual allocation for Active Travel works.
