Irish children are overweight as they 'have to be driven everywhere' 

Green Party deputy leader Róisín Garvey said it was 'insane that we still have kids being driven to school from across the road'

Róisín Garvey has called for more road space to be allocated towards footpaths and for more pedestrian crossings. File picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

More Irish children are overweight as they “have to be driven everywhere”, Green Party deputy leader Róisín Garvey has said.

Ms Garvey called for more road space to be allocated towards footpaths and for more pedestrian crossings, saying cars are still “king” within the country.

Ms Garvey said she personally relied on cars in rural areas but added: “In urban areas, it is insane that we still have kids being driven to school from across the road. We need pedestrian crossings, we need wider footpaths.”

She said on Monday: “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.

“That’s what we need to expand. It’s space for people and not just cars all the time.” 

Ms Garvey said other countries have used best practices and taken cars out of parts of cities, highlighting the traffic changes in Dublin City along the Liffey.

“Let’s just do it here and modernise our country and not be stuck back in the 80s where we think we should drive a car everywhere. It’s insane”.

School transport scheme

Ms Garvey made the call following a question about the expansion of the school transport scheme at the Green Party think-in.

The party’s think-in, taking place in Dublin, is the first for new party leader Roderic O’Gorman, where he made the call for all public transport to be made free for children under nine.

“Cost should never be a barrier towards families using public transport and we think it’s really important that we develop those positive habits of children using public transport and make it more affordable,” Mr O’Gorman said.

He also highlighted the party’s call for a one-off quadrupling of child benefit payment for families with a newborn baby, up to €540.

Mr O’Gorman also commented on recent speculation as to the date of the general election, saying while it was ultimately a matter for Taoiseach Simon Harris, he would “expect” to be consulted for a final date.

On the timing, Mr O’Gorman said he wanted the government to go full-term, due to the pieces of legislation required to be passed by the Dáil ahead of it being dissolved.