Children ‘stay on the road’ because they can’t get bus spaces

The children “stay on the road” because they can’t get places on the school buses the Dáil has heard.

Education Minister Norma Foley has come under pressure to ensure that school transportation is provided to the 120,000 students in need.

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said many children still don’t have transportation even though schools have reopened.

“I get calls all the time from parents about this. They don’t care how clean the buses are if their kids can’t get on them,” he said.

Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice stated that the school bus seat request portal is not open to parents, which means their children have run out of transportation.

“The Department is leaving the children by the side of the road because it did not allow their parents to pay in recent weeks.”

He said: “It is a shame that parents going to work should try to get a neighbor or someone else to bring their child to school or pick them up from school at a time when people must limit their interactions.

“Bus Éireann stated – and I hope the Department will confirm this one way or another – that it received instructions two weeks ago to close the portals.

“Bus Éireann will now not interact with parents or anyone else. He is waiting a few months to see if he can have more buses on the road.”

He asked the minister to instruct Bus Éireann to reopen the portal for parents to access places for their children on a bus.

Galway West TD Catherine Connolly said a comprehensive school transportation system needs to be implemented.

She criticized the “mixed message” around transportation and said “there is a very bad message that goes out to avoid public transportation.” We should send regular updates on what we are doing ”to make sure transportation is improving and getting cars off the road.

Youth Education Minister Josepha Madigan told Dáil that Bus Éireann was now in the process of obtaining additional vehicles to ensure that all children have a place on a school bus. She said school buses will run at 50% capacity.

In his first contribution to Dáil since leaving the post of agriculture minister, Dara Calleary highlighted problems with the evaluation of teachers who have high-risk conditions.

“I would ask that there be some kind of coherence and some kind of understanding from teachers who are expected to be in a classroom situation and have high-risk conditions,” he said.