Fianna Fáil Councillor Caroline O’Reilly has written to the Minister for Education calling for changes to the School Transport Scheme, saying children living on rural roads with no safe way to walk or cycle to school should automatically qualify for a bus place. Cllr O’Reilly said she is once again dealing with families who have been left without school transport ahead of September and believes the same problems coming up year after year show that the system needs to change.
“We are back here again. Every August I have parents contacting me because they don’t know how they are going to get their children to school. I send in the representations, chase individual cases and try to get places sorted, but then the following year it starts all over again. “At some point this has to stop being an annual firefighting exercise and the system itself has to change.” Cllr O’Reilly said one of the biggest problems is that distance does not take enough account of the reality of rural roads. “If there is no footpath and no safe way for a child to reasonably walk or cycle to school, I believe they should automatically qualify for school transport.
“A few kilometres on a footpath in a town is completely different to the same distance on a narrow country road with bends, no lighting, no hard shoulder and HGVs passing. There are roads around here that I wouldn’t walk myself. I certainly wouldn’t expect a child to walk or cycle them twice a day to get to school.”
She has also asked the Minister to review the concessionary ticket system, which can result in children within the same family being treated differently. “You can have two children leave the house on the school bus while their brother or sister has been refused a ticket for the very same bus and the same school. Or a child can have a seat for a number of years and suddenly not get one the following September. How is a family supposed to plan around that? “For many rural families a concessionary ticket isn’t a bonus. It is the only realistic way their child can get to school.”
Cllr O’Reilly said the school transport problem is part of a wider concern about whether services are keeping pace with population and housing growth. “It increasingly feels like families are competing for services. I am seeing it with school places, childcare and now seats on school buses. That is not a criticism of families moving into an area or of new housing. New homes are badly needed and growing communities should be a positive thing. But the services and infrastructure have to grow alongside them.
“Government cannot facilitate increased population and housing without planning for the additional pressure that puts on schools, transport and other essential services.”
Cllr O’Reilly said the current situation also runs against efforts to reduce car dependency. “If a child doesn’t get a bus ticket and there is no safe walking or cycling route, what exactly is the alternative? Their parent has to get into the car and drive them. Multiply that across rural communities every morning and afternoon and it means more cars on rural roads and more congestion outside schools. It makes no sense.”
In her correspondence to the Minister, Cllr O’Reilly has asked for road conditions, traffic levels, lighting and footpaths to be taken into account when deciding eligibility. She has also sought a review of concessionary places, greater continuity for children already using a route, consideration of siblings and better capacity planning based on year-on-year demand. “This needs to be looked at from the point of view of the child standing at their front gate. Can they safely get from there to school without a car?
“If the answer is no, and there is no safe walking or cycling option available, then I believe they should have a right to school transport. Rural families should not have to go through the same battle every August, and they should not feel they are competing with their neighbours for access to basic services. Our communities are growing. The services they depend on have to grow with them.
