Ireland is facing a problem right now and that is that the inconvenience related to the lack of bus routes in rural areas has been highlighted by parents/guardians in a school transport survey carried out.
Earlier in the month the party launched Budget 2022 proposals “that would see an additional 17,000 seats funded on the School Transport Scheme in the next academic year, and the elimination of fees over a five-year government term” if they were to be implemented.
The School Transport Scheme, which is operated by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education, supports transport to and from school for children who reside remote from their nearest school.
Parents ‘scrambling’ to arrange school transport
A spokesperson on transport Darren O’Rourke said the scheme is an “essential service, catering for 114,000 children daily” but that each year, it is “substantially oversubscribed, leaving parents scrambling to arrange transport to school for their children if they do not get a seat on their local bus”.
“Sinn Féin [is] proposing to invest €17 million to deliver 17,000 extra places in the next academic year, eliminate fees at a cost of €13.8 million over a five-year government term and allocate €5 million for the purchase of new school buses next year,” the Meath East TD explained.
“Our plans would add more buses and routes, cut back school costs for families and encourage the use of public transport from a young age.”
“The transport sector currently accounts for over 20% of our total carbon emissions, so if we are to meet our 2030 and 2050 climate targets, we need targeted actions in this area now,” he added.
The Sinn Féin report cited figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) that show at primary level, “only 10.4% of students now take the bus to school, almost half the 19% that was recorded in 1986”.
“On the other hand, the number of students travelling by private car has surged from 24% in 1986 to 59.8% in 2016. During almost the same period, between 1990 and 2019, road transport emissions rose by 142.6%.”
