Green TD Steven Matthews has criticised the failure of Bus Éireann and the Department of Education to provide school transport in a number of Wicklow areas including Blessington & Ashford, leaving families with no choice but to drive as schools return. Deputy Matthews has been in frequent contact with the Area Manager for Bus Éireann and Minister Norma Foley’s office, who both confirmed that these routes are being worked on but there is no solution at this time. This is despite the Department of Education publishing an extensive review of the school transport system earlier this year.
Criticising the failure to implement the key recommendations of this review, Deputy Matthews said:
“Every summer we are seeing the same problems – really poor communication from Bus Éireann, families only finding out last minute about whether their child has a place on a bus and a series of Wicklow routes unable to run due to driver shortages or a lack of capacity.
“The additional hassle and stress this puts on parents and families, not to mention the huge number of unnecessary additional cars on the road every day, is totally unacceptable. Applications for places need to be submitted months in advance so all these problems are foreseeable and don’t just crop up a week before schools start.
“I fully accept that it is a logistical challenge to facilitate thousands of students but to see little to no improvement on last year is ridiculous – especially given the wholesale review of the system by the Department of Education published earlier this year. Lessons clearly haven’t been learned from past failings.
“I strongly believe in moving the operation of the scheme to the Department of Transport. The Department of Education has shown that they are consistently incapable of managing this service.
“In recent years, Green Party Minister for Transport – Eamon Ryan and I have led on many transport initiatives in Wicklow including an unprecedented increase in bus routes, rail services and making huge progress on bringing the DART to Wicklow Town. This is the sort of expertise in transport planning that is required to put in place long term solutions for the school transport system, concluded Deputy Matthews.
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