Some 18 to 20 secondary school students remain without a seat on a bus, impacting 15 local families in Co Cavan.
The affected students are on what is called concessionary transport tickets because their families have chosen not to send them to the nearest school in their catchment are because it is in Granard, County Longford.
The students, living in the Ballyjamesduff/Granard catchment areas, have missed out due to the ‘nearest school rule’ and a lack of capacity on existing buses. The situation is particularly worse in the Mullahoran/Kilnaleck area where up to 20 children have no seat on the bus.
The families staged a protest last week and are prepared to ramp up their campaign until the Department of Education fix the problems on their route. Linda O'Reilly has two sons in fourth and second year who had seats on the A20 bus until this new term. She told Northern Sound it is unfair on the families affected and it is taking on toll on the students who want to get back on their bus.
Ciara Donohoe has a child in second year in Loreto College and another in fifth year in St Patrick's College. She says if they can find over 300 thousand euro to build a bike shelter in Leinster House surely they can get a bigger bus so the local children can get to and from school. Both Linda and Ciara says this situation needs to be sorted out and sorted out now.#
