School bus chaos continues as kids refused a place on local service

THE LIVES of at least 15 Co Carlow families have been thrown into chaos after their children were refused a place on the local school bus.

Angry and stressed parents in the Rathvilly area this week contacted The Nationalist to outline the huge upheaval caused to their families by the refusal of Bus Éireann to grant school bus tickets to their children, who are all students at Tullow Community School. Many of the children affected had previously used the school bus service, but to their absolute shock learned with just weeks to go to the new academic year that they had been refused a place.

In an effort to get their children to and from school without the bus service, elderly and sick relatives have been drafted in to help, work hours have been changed, and the families forced into the extra cost of afterschool services.

“Both myself and my wife work in south Co Dublin and I work two shifts, an early and a late, so when we heard our daughters hadn’t a place on the bus, to be honest, we didn’t know what we were going to do,” said one father.

“My wife’s father then agreed to help out, but he hadn’t been very well at all and is due to go in for major surgery, so it is not ideal,” he added.

Already this year, some of the children affected have missed days at school, as their working parents simply can’t arrange alternative transport. Families put under enormous personal upheaval have the added frustration of often seeing the school bus drive by their homes, or in some instances have had to drive behind the bus in and out of Tullow on their way to school.

“The stress of this has been unbelievable, and that’s before the evenings get darker or the cold weather. It’s just very unfair for parents trying to get out to work … parents who don’t ever get anything for free,” said one mother.

“It’s not even about the money: I’d happily pay for the service, but we’ve been told there is no place on the bus this year for my two girls,” she stated.

“Since they started in Tullow, they’ve always used the school bus, but this year we got an email from Bus Éireann to say they could not cater for the children this school year.” The Nationalist has learned that tickets allocated to children using the school bus service to Tullow from the Rathvilly area are considered ‘concessionary’, as Scoil Chonglais in Baltinglass is deemed to be their nearest school.

However, traditionally children from the Rathvilly area have in far greater numbers attended Tullow Community School, while Rathvilly NS is regarded as a feeder school for the Tullow second-level school.

“The way I feel about it is that we are being discriminated against because of an Eircode,” said one mother whose children were also refused a place on the bus.

“We are located right in the middle of Tullow, Hacketstown and Baltinglass and the school bus for Tullow is going right by our door, which was a consideration in where we sent our children to school."

“Rathvilly NS is a feeder school for Tullow and that is on their admissions policy,” she added.

Parents point to the lack of transparency regarding eligibility for the school bus service, describing the allocation of tickets as “a lottery”.

The Nationalist understands that currently a private bus operator hired by Bus Éireann and the department’s school transport section runs three buses in the Rathvilly area to Tullow: a 52-seater, 30-seater and 24-seater.

“If the 24-seater bus was increased to a 52-seater, all the children affected would have a place on the bus,” pointed out one parent.

“In the mornings, I have to leave my house at ten past eight, with two other kids and a four-month-old baby still in their pyjamas, to get into Tullow to leave my two older children to school and then be back and have the other two ready for primary school,” she said.

“And that’s with me on maternity leave. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I go back to work.

“It’s the same in the evenings: all into the car, the younger ones just finished school and starving, quickly all into the car and back into Tullow, which is mayhem at that time, to collect the others from school.

“Often they get into the car and we end up following the school bus home to Rathvilly … it’s a nightmare,” she added.

In a statement to The Nationalist, Bus Éireann clarified that it manages the School Transport Scheme for the Department of Education.

“Under this scheme, students are eligible for transport if they live at least 4.8 km away from their nearest secondary school or 3.2 km away from their nearest primary school. This is determined by the Department of Education and Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language,” the statement said. 

Bus Éireann indicated that students who do not qualify for transport can apply for concessionary tickets when: there are spare seats available after eligible students have been allocated tickets; there is a bus service going to their school, there are empty seats on the bus and if they make an application and pay the required annual fee (medical card fee waiver does not apply) before the closing.  

“Concessionary ticket availability can change each year, is not available on public bus services, and is not guaranteed for the entire time a student is in school,” the statement concluded.

 Full details of the Department of Education School Transport Scheme are available at www.education.ie.