A Monaghan councillor is calling for all eligible students to be afforded school transport for the upcoming academic school year.
Cllr Sinead Flynn raised her concerns at this month's sitting of Monaghan County Council.
She also highlighted that there was a number of outstanding school transport issues which have been unresolved to date going back to last September. The local councillor said the council wrote to the Minister for Education and to Bus Eireann, to request a meeting but this still has not been facilitated.
According to Cllr Flynn, each year, families across the county experience significant uncertainty and distress due to inadequate transport provisions, with many eligible students facing delays or outright exclusion from the service.
In the current school year, over 172,500 children, are transported daily across the country in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. She said she was disappointed at the lack of response the council has received from the Minister of Education and Bus Eireann in relation to her calls for them to appear in the chamber.
Cllr Flynn said this is an urgent situation that needs to be addressed. "We had requested an urgent meeting back in February, and we had received no acknowledgement whatsoever in relation to that request and to make matters worse, we're actually still waiting on a response from Bus Eireann from last year, and this is relating to a number of outstanding issues.
"So we've received no response, no accountability, no update and no engagement from any of the relevant authorities, and so we decided that what we would do was that we would rewrite to the Minister of Education, Helen McEntee and Siobhan Griffin, regional school transport manager for Bus Eireann calling for an immediate meeting with them both."
