OVER 30 students from the Ballinhassig area have been left without a place on the school bus, ahead of the start of the new term, in two weeks’ time.
The school bus issues of recent years have returned again this year, worried parents told a meeting in Kinsale recently.
All the affected students are ‘concessionary’ bus ticket holders – ie they have been told by Bus Éireann that schools in Carrigaline, Rochestown and Bishopstown are nearer to them than their chosen school in Kinsale. However, there are currently no buses from Ballinhassig to those schools.
The concessionary tickets are not free – they are €75 for post-primary children – which must be paid on application, but the money is refunded if no seat is available.
Parents say they should have a right to choose their schools and that the system is now completely broken and outdated.
One parent, who did not wish to be named, said she has two children attending Kinsale Community School.
‘My eldest daughter had a ticket for the past two years and now she has nothing. It’s so upsetting for her as she meets her friends on the bus and it will really impact her life. My son is starting first year and his friends have bus tickets but he doesn’t. Now that is worrying him,’ she said.
‘I work from home but both my husband and I will now have to drive them in and out of Kinsale and that’s just not feasible. It will be a case of lots of cars going up and down to Kinsale on a daily basis, which isn’t great for the environment.’
She was told by Bus Éireann that she should send her children to school in Carrigaline or even Rochestown. But there are no buses from Ballinhassig to those schools, so she would otherwise face massive taxi bills.
Government TD Christopher O’Sullivan (FF), who organised the Kinsale meeting, said there were well over 30 students impacted in that area, and in most cases the closest schools are deemed to be Carrigaline or Bishopstown, but there are no buses to either, ‘so they are in fact stranded,’ he told The Southern Star.
He added that many of these students attended national schools which were deemed ‘feeder schools’ for Kinsale, making the school the obvious choice for them now.
Some of the Ballinhassig parents who are fighting for a bus to take their kids to school. (Photo: Andy Gibson)
Deputy O’Sullivan says it is putting these families at a serious disadvantage, and is also impacting on their work lives. He said he would be bringing the matter to the Department’s attention.
Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard said the school transport saga was ‘like Groundhog Day’ and queried the lack of urgency from Minister Normal Foley publishing a long-awaited review into the system.
‘She should have ensured the review and subsequent recommendations were in place well before now,’ he said.
‘The issuance of concessionary tickets is an outdated and unfair system. Parents are at their wits’ end. We want to encourage people to use public transport yet we’re telling students who have been on the school bus in previous years that they have no seat this year.’
He also took issue with a report that Minister Foley said that the school transport scheme has ‘been very efficiently run this year’.
‘This is not the experience of families that I have been dealing with,’ he said.
Deputy Michael Collins (Ind) said his offices had been ‘flooded’ with complaints.
He added that some parents will be forced to pay up to €3,000 per child for taxi transport. ‘For the majority, such additional costs, even the driving option, are completely prohibitive,’ he said. ‘The entire system must be overhauled,’ he said, and eligibility criteria axed, to provide all children free school transport.
A Dept of Education spokesperson said temporary alleviation measures are continuing for the 2023/24 school year, ‘pending completion of the school transport scheme review’.
