Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2177. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the details of the €1,343,304 external expenditure costs paid to a company (details supplied) for an evaluation of sustainable transport areas in 2017; the reason no report was published on this service consultancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32967/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn 2012, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport funded 3 Smarter Travel Areas (STAs); Limerick City (Castletroy and City Centre), Dungarvan and Westport. This STA programme ran for 5 years, finishing at the end of 2016.
The programme was the first of its kind undertaken in Ireland, with the aim of piloting a comprehensive range of sustainable and active travel measures and to measure their performance so that high quality evidence would be available to inform future planning, policy and investment decisions by the Department and local authorities in the area of active travel (walking and cycling). As such, monitoring and evaluation work on the programme has been ongoing since its inception in 2012 and throughout its lifetime. The external expenditure to which the Deputy refers is a cumulative total that has been paid by the Department over the five-year evaluation period rather than exclusively in 2017.
An interim evaluation report from this project was published on the DTTAS website in 2016 and is available at http://www.dttas.ie/corporate/english/policy-review-and-analysis. A final evaluation report has been prepared and has been submitted to the Department. It is currently being reviewed by Departmental officials and I expect it to be published in Quarter 3 2018.
