School bus ticket woes continue for Leitrim families

Bus drivers are being faced with leaving children at bus stops and dealing with overcrowding on some routes as the crisis surrounding the School Transport Scheme continues.

Two motions were brought before Monday's meeting of Leitrim County Council about ongoing problems with the scheme.

Cllr Brendan Barry and Cllr Sean McGowan both called for additional buses and drivers to be provided to sort the shortfall of bus tickets for students in the current academic year.

They also called for Ministers Norma Foley and Eamon Ryan to change the Department of Education School Transport guidelines and provide more funding for the scheme going forward.

Cllr McGowan said that while the waiving of school transport fees had been well intentioned it left many students who had previously availed of concessionary tickets without a place.

“These students and their families have been left in limbo,” said Cllr McGowan.

“I have never had as many questions on this as I have received in the last 6-8 weeks. More funding is needed for this year to sort this.”

Cllr Barry, said the system already had issues and the waiver has only added to this.

“The waiver was done with good intentions but it was not well planned. The Government rushed into it and families are now dealing with the results,” he pointed out.

The Sinn Féin councillor said not only is there a need for funding, buses and drivers this year, but plans have to be put in place for next year to ensure this situation does not arise again.

“If a bus goes past your door you should be eligible for a ticket regardless of whether it is your nearest school or not. This needs to be looked at and the delays in allocating tickets must also be addressed,” he said.

Cllr Barry said he was aware of one family who applied for tickets in January and didn't get word back on allocations until two weeks ago.

“Allocations need to be done earlier so parents and students know what is going on and can prepare,” he said.

The motions received unanimous support.

Cllr Paddy O'Rourke said that the waiving of the fees for this year in July had come only days after he had called on the Department to speed up the allocation of places.

“The announcement of the waiver has further exacerbated a bad situation,” he said, adding that the announcement should have been “better planned and thought out”.

His FF party colleague, Cllr Mary Bohan said that this has caused a lot of stress for families as students who previously had tickets for years now have no transport to school.

Cllr Caillian Ellis, who also works as a bus driver, said that he is aware of a colleague who had been unable to collect a child from a bus stop “because there was simply no space for them on the bus”.

He described the lack of planning behind the introduction of the fee waiver as “the silliest thing ever done”.

“Tickets are being announced, but all at the last minute. I have four families that have been using my bus for the last 10 years and their children can no longer get a ticket, so I can no longer collect them. That's not fair on those families. The Minister needs to provide more funding for more buses,” he said.

Cllr Des Guckian stressed that this “mess has to be cleaned up this year, not next year” and he said that his Fianna Fáil colleagues should be condemning their Minister, who made the waiver announcement, directly.

However Cllr Mary Bohan said that “you cannot lay all the blame for this on the Minister. There are plenty of senior officials in the Department who were part of this too.”

Cllr Thomas Mulligan described the announcement of the waiver was “ill thought out” adding it “was always going to result in havoc. It is clear there has to now be a huge commitment to putting more buses on the road.”

Noting the shortage of bus drivers, Cllr Enda McGloin suggested allowing bus drivers to continue working past the current retirement age provided they passed a medical.

“We could bring back some of the drivers who have retired, this way, to meet the shortfall of drivers,” he said.

Cllr Padraig Fallon said people are “rightly and hugely angered” by the current situation.

“Some parents have had to quit work and others are seeking flexible working arrangements just so they can get their kids to school,” he said.

“Cllr Caillian Ellis touched on this issue when he said that those who have previously been issued a ticket should keep that ticket.

“This lottery system of granting concessionary tickets has to end,” stressed Cllr Fallon.

“It's a complete and utter mess,” agreed Cllr Justin Warnock.

“We were able to provide extra buses during Covid when there were capacity restrictions. No child should be left at the side of the road.”