Tipperary school children missing out on school bus places because of strict distance criteria

Strict distance criteria to qualify for a place on a primary school bus means a child attending school in New Inn may not secure a bus seat in September while their sibling receives a ticket.  

New Inn has separate boys and girls primary schools located just 0.3km apart from each other. 

Depending on where a family lives in New Inn parish, a boy may qualify for a school ticket but his sister may only qualify for a concessionary ticket and vice versa because their school is geographically closer than 3.2km from their home. 

A concessionary ticket means they will have a place on the school bus only if seats are left after all eligible children are catered for.  

There have been numerous cases in recent years where children in the New Inn area qualifying for concessionary tickets have been unable to secure a primary school bus seat.  

Fine Gael general election candidate Mary Newman Julian from Lagganstown near New Inn has highlighted the difficulties the 3.2km distance from school qualification criteria is causing families in the New Inn area. 

She said another difficulty in her area is that some families in New Inn Parish are slightly geographically closer to Golden National School and will only qualify for a concessionary bus ticket to the New Inn primary schools because of this.  New Inn schools are traditionally where families from New Inn Parish send their children, she points out. Besides there is no school bus to Golden National School serving their community. 

 "The parish structure should stand for something," she argues. 

Ms Newman said the situation in New Inn is unlikely to be unique and has called on the Department of Education & Skills to review the primary schools bus scheme and its qualification criteria. 

"The primary schools bus scheme was last reviewed in 2012 when there was very little money in the country. It's now time to increase school bus places. This 3.2km cut off appears to be an arbitrary cut off figure based on budgets," she told The Nationalist 

Ms Newman, who has children attending the New Inn primary schools, says she is calling for the review in the interests of quality of life for families, particularly busy working parents. 

She points out that increasing school bus places for New Inn and other rural communities is needed to improve health and safety around rural schools.  Reducing the number of cars outside schools at start and finish times will reduce traffic congestion and pressure on car parking spaces in villages. 

 It will also contribute to the government's target of reducing carbon emissions by reducing car journeys, she argues.  "If we are serious about mitigating against climate change, this is a measure that can reduce our carbon footprint. “ 

A Department of Education & Skills spokesperson responded that there are no plans to review the distance criteria of the School Transport Scheme, the goal of which was to support the transport to and from school of children who live remotely from their nearest school.  He stressed the terms of the School Transport Schemes are applied equitably nationally. 

"Children who are eligible for school transport and who complete the application process on time will be accommodated on school transport services.  

“Children who are not eligible for school transport may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only and will be facilitated where spare seats are available after eligible children have been accommodated.

The spokesman said  individual queries regarding applications for school transport for the 2019/20 school year should be addressed to the local Bus Éireann office.