Why can’t we fix school transport?

HIS is the time of year which journalists refer to as the ‘silly season’ – when courts and local authority meetings are finished for the summer and news reporters are scraping the barrel for serious news stories.

But there is one ‘hardy annual’ which shows no signs of falling off the radar any August soon. And that is the story of the school transport system.

For many years now, the story of ‘school bus chaos’ has been rearing its ugly head in the weeks before the schools return.

It’s not a complicated scheme, really. Primary school children are eligible for transport if they live 3.2km from their nearest school, and at post-primary level where they reside not less than 4.8km away. Children who are eligible will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.

Children who are not eligible, but who complete the application and payment process on time, will be considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated, and such seats are referred to as concessionary seats. Parents apply – and pay – in the spring and wait a few weeks to see if their child qualifies for a seat. Each August, parents tell stories of children who had seats in the past being suddenly refused.

In an age when many households have both parents working, having a seat on a school bus is an essential part of the household’s ability to efficiently operate. Many parents start work before schools do, and so not having the facility of a bus pick-up for students often means one parent may have to make alternative arrangements to get a child to school.

Adding to this stress, young children who have made friends on their local bus, now see some of these friends, and possibly even neighbours, being randomly allowed board the bus which no longer has a seat for them. 

It can be quite a traumatic start to a school year for many nervous or anxious children, apart from the inconvenience, financially and logistically, for the parents. 

This year we learn that over 30 students in Ballinhassig alone will be left stranded with no bus to take them to school.

All the affected students are ‘concessionary’ bus ticket holders but have been told by Bus Éireann that the Kinsale school is not as close as schools in Carrigaline, Rochestown and Bishopstown. And yet, there are currently no buses from Ballinhassig to those schools, so they really don’t have a choice in any case.

It seems bizarre in this day and age that parents who want to choose one school over another should be discriminated against in this way. Let’s remember, the school transport system is not free – though it is subsidised. While fees have been reduced in recent years, parents still pay €50 for a primary school child, €75 for a second level student, up to a maximum of €125 per family. 

It is not that long ago that many students were discriminated against, academically, because their local school did not teach a subject they were particularly interested in learning. This was particularly the case with female students who often found their local convent did not offer them science subjects, and so the only option was another local school – usually the technical school in the region – if they wanted to pursue a career in anything remotely technical or scientific.

Other students, who may have had a particularly artistic leaning, may have wanted to capitalise on that by attending a school that offered a good art course at senior level, so they could build a portfolio for art college. There are many examples of why students – then and now – may choose one school over another. But it is disappointing to think that in 2023, many parents are being forced to choose the closest, though not necessarily the best, or most suitable, school for their child. 

This year we are being told the government is awash with money. And yet we cannot provide enough bus seats to satisfy all the children who want to get to school.

The Green Party, a member of the current government, is at pains to get us all out of our cars, and start using public transport.

Yet when it comes to our young people – the adults of tomorrow – they cannot find the funds to encourage them to do the same. That’s not exactly good role-modelling, now is it?

Maybe it is still the silly season after all.