Three additional buses for students travelling to Trim
Progress has been made on the school bus crisis with news that Bus Éireann is sanctioning three extra school buses for secondary students travelling to schools in Trim. This follows a campaign by parents living in Moynalvey who applied and paid for bus tickets for their 12 secondary school children but were told just days before the new term began that their tickets had been revoked.
Parents of new first-year and returning pupils attending Boyne Community School and Scoile Mhuire in Trim applied for tickets at the beginning of the summer and many had been told that would not get seats due to a shortage of space leaving students with no transport to school.
A majority of children qualify automatically for bus transport on the basis that they live at least 3.2km from their nearest primary school or 4.8km from a secondary school. Once these children are catered for the so-called “concessionary” seats for children that are not automatically eligible for transport are allocated using a random selection process. These children are considered only after eligible children have been facilitated.
It is understood that students living in Moynalvey, Summerhill, Kildalkey and Dunderry will be accommodated in the move with some parents still awaiting official confirmation and details of routes.
Cllr. Damien O’Reilly has welcomed the development saying,
"I have been working closely with parents of 12 children in the Moynalvey area over the last few weeks who where left ticketless.
The community came out in protest earlier this month
"This has been a very stressful period for all the parents in Moynalvey and thanks to the chairperson of this group Hazel Thompson for working so diligently for local parents over the last few weeks contacting Bus Éireann, Councillors, TD’s and Ministers."
Meanwhile, Cllr Aisling Dempsey commented:
"I am delighted for the families who I’ve been working on appeals with and grateful that at least some of the families refused places are now sorted."
Bus Éireann has said:
"Minister McHugh has sanctioned an additional €1m on the school transport budget to allow for temporary alleviation measures to address a shortage of school transport capacity on the post-primary scheme in 2019. The cost of these measures is to be given to those areas where there is a significant concentration of post-primary children who have paid on time for the 2019/2020 school year and who are attending their second closest school.
"Bus Éireann has been reviewing areas in Co. Meath that meets these criteria and additional capacity has been made available in conjunction with the Department of Education and Skills to alleviate some of the capacity issues in parts of County Meath.
"Bus Éireann continues to work with the Department of Education and Skills to process applications and design routes to ensure that all eligible pupils who paid on time are facilitated with school transport. In doing this we are endeavouring to facilitate as many concessionary pupils as possible where capacity exists."