A Waterford Green Party Councillor would like to see 'no-car-zones' outside schools in Waterford.
Councillors in Fingal in Dublin voted to support a trial at primary school in Malahide which will see cars prevented from driving to the school gates at drop-off and pick-up times.
Councillor Marc Ó Cathasaigh is himself a teacher in Tramore.
"There is a great deal of danger associated with traffic around schools.
"It's a twin problem, it's the actual physical danger of the vehicles themselves but, probably more dangerous and more insidious is the tailpipe emissions.
"We know that there have been 1,500 premature deaths in Ireland last year, the EPA reckons, which is to do with air pollution.
"We're exposing our children to these elevated levels of air pollution at the drop-off times around schools.
Marc Ó Cathasaigh would be in favour of a trial in Waterford.
"I know well from my own school in Tramore in Glor na Mara that while we have lovely fresh sea air the rest of the time, at that critical five, ten, fifteen-minute window where parents are dropping their kids off to school, I cross the road with my child and you can definitely smell the air quality reducing.
"I think it's a positive idea, I think it's a good idea, it's something that we should look at, we should look at a school's geography - what type of road is servicing it, if it's an arterial road it becomes much more difficult.
"But, I would definitely like to see it trialled in schools across Waterford."
