School bus problems ‘beyond belief’

Tempers have flared over “children being left on the side of the street” with no way to get to school.

Councillors voiced their anger over the lack of seats on school buses with many children, they said, being left stranded on the side of the road.

At Monday’s Cork County Council meeting, there was a lengthy discussion about it with a decision made to write to Deputy John Halligan TD, Minister at the Department of Education and Skills.

This is to highlight the current situation in relation to the lack of school bus tickets and the associated impact on school pupils accessing school bus services in Cork.

Councillors said that the answer was to either put on more buses or increase the size of the school buses.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Gearóid Murphy said the situation was “beyond belief”.

“It’s very frustrating for us as councillors to say that we are powerless. One bus going from a village is better than 20 cars.”

Independent Cllr Mary Linehan Foley said that it was stressful enough time for students without the stress of this. She said she knew of parents driving behind the school bus with one child in the car while a sibling sits on the school bus.

Independent Cllr Alan Coleman dubbed it the “biggest problem” he dealt with over the summer adding that a small amount of money from the Government would solve it.

Fine Gael’s Kevin Murphy said: “People are contacting me from other counties too. Children are being left on the side of the street.”

Fianna Fáil Cllr Seamus McGrath said it has been an issue for the past few years but it was “worse this year than ever before”.

A statement from the Department of Education to the newspaper about the issue said: “Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application process on time have been accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation for the 2019/2020 school year.

“Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who complete the application process on time, are considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.

“Where the number of applications for school transport on a concessionary basis exceeds the number of spare seats available, tickets are allocated using an agreed selection process.”

The statement continued: “Minister McHugh has recently sanctioned an additional €1m on the school transport budget to allow for temporary alleviation measures to address a shortage of school transport capacity on the post primary scheme in 2019.

“The cost of these measures is to be given to those areas where there is a significant concentration of post-primary children who have paid on time for the 2019/2020 school year and who are attending their second closest school. A number of measures have been confirmed to alleviate some of the capacity issues in the areas of highest demand in some parts of the country, including areas in Cork.

“Bus Éireann continues to work with the Department of Education and Skills to process applications and design routes to ensure that all eligible pupils who paid on time are facilitated with school transport.”

The statement continued: “In doing this they are endeavouring to facilitate as many concessionary pupils as possible where capacity exists. Work is also ongoing with Bus Éireann to assess where limited resources can be invested to ease pressures in other parts of the country.”