Urgent calls in Cork for reform of the school transport scheme as children miss out on bus seats

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Cork councillors have strongly criticised the school bus transport system, saying it’s unfit for purpose and needs to be reformed immediately to ensure every pupil can get a seat on it.

The councillors were responding to a letter from the office of Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Michael Moynihan about plans to reform the scheme.

The letter stated that a 2024 report recommended that eligibility criteria be expanded and the scheme be better integrated with public transport so that by 2030 it can carry an extra 100,000 pupils in addition to the 178,000 students it currently transports. A number of pilot projects are underway to prepare the way for the scheme’s expansion.

Speaking at this week’s meeting of Cork County Council, Cllr Ann Bambury said the department’s plan is too slow and called for universal access to school transport by 2027.

“The correspondence outlines various pilot projects and evaluations, but pilot schemes alone are not enough. What we need now is real action on the ground, a clear and ambitious plan that ensures every child, regardless of where they live or their eligibility status, has access to school transport,” she said.

Cllr Joe Carroll said the current scheme is failing students and parents. “The school bus transport system is backward. A letter has to go back to the minister that this system has to be changed immediately, not next year, immediately. The system where parents are expected to have their money [for tickets] paid in the middle of April and will not know until September whether they're getting a seat in the bus or not, that wouldn't happen anywhere,” he said.

“There's a number of feeder schools for every school in every town, they would find out in 25 minutes how many kids are leaving the [primary] school going to secondary school. Parents should know before the schools break up whether they're on the bus or not, I'm talking about in June, not in the end of August.”

Cllr Deirdre Kelly said that in West Cork: “we still have 23 students who do not have a seat on the buses to school.” At a council meeting in September the councillor said that the students paid for their tickets back in April but found out the week before the start of term that there was no seat available for them.

Cllr Michael Hegarty recounted the case of a family in East Cork where “they got one ticket and basically had to make a decision which one of them was going to travel on the bus and the parents driving after the bus taking the other son or daughter, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Several councillors raised the issue of drivers aged over 70 not being allowed to drive school buses. “There's a big issue with the shortage of drivers and the fact that the over 70s are taken off the service. That's not a department thing, that's a Bus Eireann initiative, but the department has to cancel it because that's cutting out so many people,” said Cllr William O'Leary.

He said this issue also affects the Bus Eireann-operated taxis used to transport children with special needs to school. “You have a 69-year-old bringing three or four kids to special education schools and the minute they turn 70 they can’t go and the impact that has on people because they got used to the driver and you know change in those circumstances can cause upheaval.”

The council agreed to write back to the minister expressing the points made in the meeting and calling for quicker action to reform the current scheme.