1.10 | Biodiversity

1.10 | Biodiversity

If poorly implemented, transport infrastructure investment can damage the natural world and lead to losses in connectivity and habitat fragmentation. To mitigate these risks, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Appropriate Assessment (AA), and Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) have been carried out alongside NIFTI to identify potential negative environmental outcomes of the framework for protected sites and designated species. This analysis is discussed further in Section 6.

In July 2020, Transport Infrastructure Ireland published the Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes report which investigates the needs and travel behaviours of women, and is the first study of its kind conducted in Ireland.1 The report found that women in Ireland rely heavily on car transport infrastructure and identified significant caregiving responsibilities, safety concerns and equality of access as drivers of car dependency for women. The full realisation of the National Strategic Outcomes set out by the NPF requires that future transport investment address the barriers that women face in the access and use of our transport system.