INDEPENDENT Ireland leader Michael Collins has described the situation where a 45-seater school bus which travels to Schull on a daily basis with empty seats driving past students as a ‘fiasco.’
The Cork South West TD brought the ongoing situation of 13 students from the Kilcoe area who attend Schull Community College to the attention of Bus Éireann CEO Stephen Kent during a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport.
The affected students have all been denied school bus tickets, despite some having previously been issued with concessionary bus tickets.
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Deputy Collins challenged Mr Kent on what he described as the ‘fiasco of a 45-seater bus with empty seats driving past students because of a failure to introduce flexibility and common sense into the delivery of the school transport scheme.
‘Children that always had tickets for their buses are being denied access while other families are finding that some of their children are getting seats while their brothers and sister are left behind despite having applied at the same time. This is simply not on.’
He also expressed his concern over the policy with respect to hiring drivers over the age of 70.
‘This makes no sense in cases where drivers can prove their fitness to work. It is no good Bus Éireann saying it needs another 2,000 drivers while they remain stubbornly resistant to change in this area.’
More than 30 students in the Ballinadee area attending secondary school in Bandon finally secured a bus five weeks into the new school term. Their issue was the lack of an available driver for the bus.
Meanwhile, the families of the Kilcoe students continue to drive them in and out to Schull on a daily basis.
One parent, Sean Kelly also wrote to the CEO of Bus Éireann in recent weeks expressing the stress and concern that he and other parents are enduing over this issue.
He criticised the lack of communication from Bus Éireann and said he was only told two weeks before the start of school term that his 16-year-old step daughter would not be receiving a concessionary school bus ticket.
