School bus transport rules must apply equally - Bruton
Louise Walsh
As the Minister for Education and local politicians visited the village last week for the historic opening of the new Kildakey NS, parents of former pupils say they are now ‘fed-up’ at being stuck at ‘stale-mate' in the row over school bus seats for their children.
Despite the heavy presence of politicians, campaigning parents said they didn’t want to take from the huge occasion by highlighting their plight on the day.
The parents who were left to find their own way for their children after they were told by Bus Éireann of the lack of seats, are now hoping for a meeting with Junior Minister John Halligan after his request through Sinn Fein Deputy Peadar Toibin.
“We are just fed up now at how we are being treated,” said mum Una Swords who helped to stage a recent 10km protest walk to school in Trim with the 12 affected pupils.
READ: Ministers meet to discuss Kildalkey school bus impasse
Una has been hit with a dilemma on how to get both her daughters to school this year, despite her oldest having had a place on the bus for the last four years.
“We're still car-pooling and juggling kids who are mostly in first year around in different cars each day. We're managing but that's just about all.
“It's very frustrating that we are no further along nearly six weeks later,” she said.
“In fairness local councillors Sinn Fein's Caroline Lynch and Fine Gael's Noel French are doing their utmost to help and Deputy Toibin is trying to organise a direct meeting between us and Minister Halligan so we are hoping for that.
After the opening of the new school, Minister Bruton said the problem is nationwide across 4,000 school and the solution has to be uniform.
“Back in 2011, there were changes made in the rules governing school transport and, as a result of that, those eligible had to be going to their nearest school and that has been a rule that was applied back then to ensure the existing buses could continue.
NOW READ: Students who can't get bus seat stage walking protest to Trim
“Now I know the difficulty here is that the capacity of that bus has been exceeded so that those who are not going to their closest school don't have eligibility and so some are not able to travel.
“It is a problem and similar problems reap themselves across the country. The difficulty is that there are 4,000 schools and a uniform rule has to be applied to all of them.
“Its not a question of making a place in one place and thinking that it doesn't have a knock-on effect in the other 3,000 odd schools, so that's the problem Minister Halligan is coping with.”
