Families without school bus places are being forced to spend thousands of euro every year to get their children to school. 

In theory, the Department of Education provides subsidised transport to pupils who live more than 4.8 km away from their secondary school. 

In practice, there are not enough places on the school buses and an estimated 900 children across the country have not been allocated a spot this year.

Even those who have one can still face long journeys to the pick up and drop off stops. 

One father, Anto, told Lunchtime Live about how the lack of school transport to his home village in Waterford had impacted dozens of children and their parents. 

“They go to Dungarvan every day for school and currently there’s only two ways to do it,” he said. 

“One is a private bus that costs €40 a week - around €1,400 per child per year - so, if you’ve got three kids going that’s €4,200.” 

For those parents who do not have a car, they are forced to send their kids on the private bus and Anto described this as a “massive drain” on their family finances. 

“They’re the people who rely on public buses the most [who] are being let down the worst,” he said. 

Some children have been allocated places on the public school bus but Anto explained the nearest bus stop is still quite a distance from Ardmore. 

“You drive all the way up to the side of the M25 - one of the busiest and most dangerous stretches of road in the country,” he said. 

“There are chaotic scenes every morning; parents have to find parking by the side of the road and load their kids onto three buses and then do U-turns. 

“The stretch of road is infamous for low visibility and fog in wintertime and there aren’t even close to enough tickets on that bus anyway for kids.”

'A simple solution'

Overall, Anto said locals consider it a “very difficult situation” and are hoping elected representatives will help them. 

“The people of Ardmore have made their position clear by turning out in two large protests now, just asking for a simple solution,” he said. 

“Send two of those buses down to the village of Ardmore to pick up our kids.” 

Anto said the protests received “great coverage” and there have been some “good responses” from local politicians. 

“210 people in Ardmore - it’s a very small village - turned up for a protest,” he said. 

“That’s 50% of the population; my wife who grew up in the village said she’s never seen anything like it marching down Main Street.” 

In its Climate Action Plan, the Government set a target of cutting the number of journeys taken by private car from 70% to 50% by the end of the decade.

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Main image: An coach in rural Ireland. Picture by: Alamy.com