Sinn Féin yesterday launched a plan outlining how to reform the school transport system to be better and fairer for students and families. Cavan-Monaghan TD Pauline Tully backed the plan and said it will vastly improve the system in Cavan-Monaghan. The plan sets out how the party would expand school transport and deliver an additional 100,000 school bus places across the state. Speaking to Northern Sound in relation to the plan, Deputy Tully believes it would benefit students and their parents throughout Cavan-Monaghan, as well as reducing traffic congestion. The local TD says families in Cavan-Monaghan "deserve better" as they continue to be let down by government's failure to plan and to listen.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Deputy Tully stated; "Yesterday Sinn Féin launched our plan to reform school transport and ensure the system works for students and their parents. This would involve an investment of more than €250 million. Our plan would expand school transport and deliver an additional 100,000 school bus places. It would expand the eligibility criteria for mainstream school transport and build capacity in the school transport system. We would provide the investment required to meet the projected increase in demand for SEN transport services, to ensure that the needs of children with disabilities are met. Crucially, our plan keeps the current payment rates to ensure affordability for families at a time when money is already stretched for so many. Government have overseen a school transport system that is chaotic and not fit for purpose. Students and their families here in Cavan-Monaghan-Monaghan have been left to pay the price for this shambles."
Deputy Tully continued; "I have been contacted by many parents whose children have not been able to secure school transport this year. The parents of a large number of children in the Ballymachugh area of Cavan who had a concessionary bus place previously were informed in the last few days, just before the start of the school year, that they would not be provided with transport this year. I have written to the Minister requesting that she consider increasing bus capacity in several areas affected in Cavan and Monaghan."
