Ramp up capacity to end Mayo school transport disarray – TD

A May TD has called on the Minister Norma Foley to urgently intervene to ensure students and families have access to school transport.

Deputy Conway-Walsh said: “Making school transport free was well intentioned policy - but badly planned.

“It was obvious from when this announcement was made that reopening the applications after announcing that it would be free would lead to additional people applying.

“I raised this issue directly with the minister after the plan was announced. It was clear then that additional capacity would be needed to meet demand. Unfortunately, the Minister ignored these warnings.

“More children will be refused a place on a school bus this year than ever before. Many of those refused will have relied on the bus for years.

“This is because there are very strict rules around who is eligible and who is not.

"These are crude and arbitrary criteria that doesn’t reflect the real school going pattern of people.

"There are numerous areas in Mayo where school going families are trapped by school transport rules designed by people who either don’t have a clue about rural Ireland or just don’t care.

“Many have always received tickets on a concessionary basis.

"They are now being squeezed out by people that meet the criteria but are only applying now that the service is free.

"Pitting on parent against another for something as basic as a seat on a school bus is terrible.

“If the government had no plan to increase capacity then they should have prioritised families that had already applied prior to the announcement that the service would be free.

“Now the minister must intervene to increase capacity to ensure families that rely on school transport and have done for years have access to the service."