Minister O’Brien publishes third annual progress report on the National Sustainable Mobility Policy Action Plan 2022-2025

Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien has published the third annual Progress Report on the implementation of the National Sustainable Mobility Policy (SMP) Action Plan 2022-2025, alongside a report of the National Sustainable Mobility Forum, which took place in May.

The Progress Report summarises the substantial progress made since the SMP was launched in 2022. It highlights the achievement of significant milestones in the third year of the Policy’s implementation, including:

• 41.3% of the Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus fleets in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford are now low- and zero-emission vehicles, surpassing the target of 40% - with Limerick becoming the first city in Ireland to have a fully electric fleet.
• The number of Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs) in the Small Public Service Vehicle (SPSV) fleet has increased by 25.5%, above the target of 25%.
• The Independent Travel Support scheme, which assists passengers with additional needs to develop skills to use public transport independently, has now been expanded to Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Waterford, building on its success in Dublin.
• Public transport passenger numbers reached an all-time high in 2024, reinforced by the October 2024 announcement that daily journeys across PSO services had reached a record level, surpassing one million trips per day.
• TFI Local Link services also continued to show year on year growth, with 4.7 million journeys completed in 2024—an increase of almost 47% compared with the previous year. This very significant increase was supported by the 45 new and enhanced services introduced under the SMP’s Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan.
• An expansion of the TfI regional bike scheme in Limerick and Cork ensured continued growth in public bike trips, with a year-on-year increase of 23% across the four regional cities in 2024, and a 51% increase in the first five months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024.
• More than 1,000 km of Active Travel and Greenway infrastructure was delivered between 2020 and 2025, with the targets for regional cities and non-metro areas hugely surpassed.
• 507 bus shelters have been installed for regional and rural services since 2022 — more than double the original target of 200.

The Progress Report shows that close to 70% of the actions set out in the Action Plan will be delivered by end-2025, with significant progress also made on the remaining actions. A detailed progress update on each of the 91 actions is provided in Annex 1.

• To access the SMP Year Three Progress Report, click here.
• To access the Facilitator’s Report of the National Sustainable Mobility Forum 2025, click here.
• The Sustainable Mobility Policy (published April 2022) committed Government to deliver at least 500,000 additional daily active travel and public transport journeys and a 10% reduction in kilometres driven by fossil-fuelled cars by 2030. This ambition has since been superseded by updated targets in the Climate Action Plan 2023, namely a 50% increase in daily active travel journeys, 130% increase in daily public transport journeys, and a 20% reduction in total vehicle kilometres travelled by 2030.
• Though the SMP itself covers the period to 2030, it was accompanied by an initial Action Plan containing 91 actions for completion by the end of 2025. These actions support behavioural change across a wide range of interventions including public transport infrastructure and services, active travel promotion and supports, road safety initiatives, legislative measures, research, and public engagement.
• The SMP, the SMP Action Plan 2022-2025 and links to the previous two Progress Reports can be found here.
• Progress on delivering the Action Plan 2022-2025 is overseen by a Sustainable Mobility Taskforce (known as the SMP Leadership Group). The Group is made up of representatives of the National Transport Authority (NTA), Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the regional assemblies (SRA, NWRA, and EMRA), City and County Management Association (CCMA), Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH), Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), Road Safety Authority (RSA), Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), as well as several divisions of the Department of Transport. Secretariat support is provided by the Department of Transport.
• In line with a commitment set out in the Programme for Government, a new SMP Action Plan will be published for the period from 2026. Work to develop this new Action Plan is underway. A process to engage stakeholders in shaping the Plan commenced with the convening of this year’s National Sustainable Mobility Forum.
• The Forum consisted of four half-day events, which were held throughout the month of May - one in Dublin and Galway and two online, with the following six key themes considered at each of the four sessions:

1. Integrating land use and transport planning with a focus on Transport-Orientated Development (SMP Goal 9)
2. Decarbonising urban transport networks – progress and insights (SMP Goals 2 and 3)
3. Building safe and attractive infrastructure for active and inclusive mobility (SMP Goals 4 and 7)
4. Boosting access to public transport for all: key insights and perspectives (SMP Goals 1, 4 and 6)
5. Engaging people to choose sustainable mobility alternatives, particularly shared modes (SMP Goals 5 and 8)
6. Data reporting and sharing in the promotion of integrated mobility (Goal 10)

• The Department engaged consultants to facilitate these sessions and to prepare a summary report that would capture contributions made from a wide range of stakeholders and interest/advocacy groups. As above, the Facilitator’s Report will be a key consideration in the development of the new SMP Action Plan 2026 to 2030.