Mayo call for end to ongoing school transport chaos
The review of the School Transport Scheme must be published without delay, a Mayo TD has said.
Deputy Alan Dillon said the Department of Education needs to publish the details of the review on the eligibility, trends, costs and the overall effectiveness of the system, given the ongoing chaos which prevailed around school transport again this year.
He outlined: “In the weeks leading to the re-opening of primary and secondary schools in late August, I had many constituents contact me in relation to bus tickets and the confusion surrounding their allocation for students.”
Deputy Dillon said he was disappointed to see that another school year has started and we still haven’t seen this review.
“A review of the School Transport Scheme began in February 2021 and an interim report was published four months later.
"This saw the introduction of temporary alleviation measures to provide transport arrangements for post-primary students.
"Unfortunately, the experience of families I am dealing with in Mayo is that these alleviation measures aren’t applied in practice.
"School transport has been one of the biggest issues for parents contacting my office over the last month and yet despite promises last May from the Minister for Education that the review would be published ‘shortly’, we don’t seem to be any closer to a publication date,” said Deputy Dillon.
He added: “I am calling on Minister Foley and Bus Éireann to come together to publish the report immediately so the concerns of worried parents can be addressed and a plan that is fit for purpose can be devised.
“The Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, who is also responsible for Environment and Climate, also has an opportunity to move towards the 20 per cent reduction in car journeys target outlined in CAP 23 by putting more school children on buses which takes more cars off the road.
“By doing this, we could achieve this target and remove the uncertainty and hassle around concessionary school transport places for families."