Families aim to show demand for public school bus service

A number of families in the areas of Coralstown and The Downs are putting together a case to convince Bus Éireann to start a school service to Rochfortbridge, and they are looking for support.

Currently the only services available to take children from The Downs, Coralstown and Milltownpass to St Joseph’s Secondary School are private buses. They are expensive, but some families have to pay because the pressure on secondary school places in Mullingar means Rochfortbridge is their alternative.

Carley Kelly is one of the parents working with Cllr Emily Wallace to gather support from other families, with a view to demonstrating the demand to Bus Éireann. She said her daughter’s first choice for starting secondary school this year was Rochfortbridge, a school she likes, and for which she received an offer of a place. Her other choices were Mullingar schools, for which there are public bus services, but none offered her a place.

Ms Kelly was “alarmed” when she discovered the cost of a seat on a private service, particularly considering other members of her family will go to second level in the coming years. She put her “thinking cap on, got in touch with local councillor, Emily Wallace, who has helped me gain some traction in terms of bringing this to the attention of the Dept of Education and particularly the Transportation Department”.

“We were advised to show the demand for the route, and in order to do that, we all need to register on the portal, which is open now, and that will feed in to the Bus Éireann system, and then it will be looked at as a potential public route – if there is enough demand for it.”

Her message to other parents in a situation like hers is to register on the portal each year, even if they had made no progress in earlier years.

“There’s been a huge response from The Downs area, Coralstown and Milltownpass as well because the route would serve there too.”

Ms Kelly contends that the system is broken; schools have catchment areas and primary level feeder schools, but when there are insufficient places, families have to send their children elsewhere, and Rochfortbridge makes perfect sense for them.

Cllr Emily Wallace agrees that the current system is flawed. Pointing out that families pay €30 a week for a private service bus (€1,000+ in a school year), she said a public school route would cost €75 for a post-primary student, and a maximum of €125 per family per year. It is free for medical card holders. “We’re looking for parents that have applied previously and been unsuccessful to reapply, parents that are driving their kids to school, but would apply for a bus seat. That shows the real numbers, the numbers that are actually there,” Cllr Wallace said.

What you can do

Cllr Wallace’s advice to parents is: apply online at buseireann.Ie/schooltransport; if you were previously unsuccessful, – reapply.

Email school_transport@education.gov.ie.

Applications close on Friday April 25.