According to the deputy leader of the Green Party, a large number of Irish children are overweight “because they have to be driven everywhere,” reports Breaking News.
At the Green Party think-in in Dublin, Róisín Garvey stated that more “space given to children who are trying to get to school safely” was necessary.
“Cars are king right now in this country, and that’s still a huge issue,” the speaker stated.
While acknowledging that she personally relied on vehicles in rural regions, Ms. Garvey continued, saying, “It is crazy that kids in urban areas are still being driven to school from across the road,” reports Breaking News.
“We need pedestrian crossings, we need wider footpaths.”
Speaking on Monday, she added: “We need to take it seriously: A quarter of our nine-year-olds are overweight, that’s because they have to be driven everywhere. We have to take this seriously and give space back to our children, and back to older people who can’t always drive and people with disabilities,” reports Breaking News.
Ms Garvey, who highlighted recent changes to traffic management in Dublin city centre as examples of schemes that work, said: “We’ve seen it as best practice in other countries.
“Let’s just do it here and modernise our country and not be stuck back in the 1980s where we think everyone should drive a car everywhere, it’s insane.”
In response to a query on whether the School Transport Scheme ought to be expanded, Ms. Garvey spoke.
Students in post-primary education must be 4.8 km distant from an appropriate school, while those in elementary education must be 3.2 km away, reports Breaking News.
The current cost is €50 for a kid attending elementary school and €75 for a youngster attending post-primary education.
A household can only pay a maximum of €125.
The head of the Green Party, Roderic O’Gorman, stated that the program’s reach should be expanded, saying that it “would be really welcome” and that “it has an environmental benefit, a cost-saving benefit, and a time-saving benefit for so many families.”
“I know (Education Minister Norma) Foley and the Department are working hard to make sure we can provide this service to everybody who wants to take it up,” he said, adding that the maximum charge has been cut during the government’s tenure, reports Breaking News.
Speaking with reporters with her colleagues in the parliamentary party, Ms Garvey described being the deputy leader of the Green Party as a “honour”.
“I feel like I’m surrounded by people who are maybe not natural politicians but are all really passionate community and environmental activists. That’s how all of us ended up here, it wasn’t through our love of being politicians, it was through our love of our people and our country and nature and what we need to do to protect this beautiful country. So that we are ready for the craziness that’s coming down the tracks that we’ve seen in Europe, we saw in Middleton (flooding) and we will be prepared,” reports Breaking News.
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