Kildare school bus pulled ahead of new term

WITH less than four days to go before the kids return to school, up to 30 families in Ballitore have been informed by Bus Eireann that the firm cannot source a school bus or driver to facilitate their kids’ travel to St Laurence’s NS in Crookstown.

“There’s a new estate in the village. Where are those kids gonna go?” asked mother of three, and spokesperson for the parents’ group Lyndsey Delaney who has been forefront in this campaign for two years now.

“When is this gonna get better in this day and age? You can’t let them walk on the Thoran Road (to Crookstown), it’s crazy.

“What are they gonna do? Nothing. They don’t care,” said Lyndsey.

On Thursday (21 August) Lyndsey and the other affected parents were sent an email from Bus Eireann confirming the absence of a bus before the re-start of St Laurence’s NS on Monday (25 August).

“Bus Éireann recently sent you a ticket for your child’s school transport, however, despite extensive efforts, we’ve had trouble setting up transport on some routes, including yours,” the email began.

“This is mostly because a number of difficulties have arisen in some localities with a small number of contracted services, including the service intended for your child.

“These difficulties have arisen in some cases due to lack of driver or contractor availability, and where zero bids were received for a service, despite repeated efforts to procure one.

“We are working intensively to ensure that transport arrangements are put in place as soon as possible.

“However, at this point, we do not have a transport solution for your service for the start of the school year on 25 August.

I wish to assure you that the School Transport team is continuing to prioritise arrangements to ensure transport can be sourced and we will let you know as soon as we have a solution,” said the Bus Eireann spokesperson.

“It’s obvious to me they knew they couldn’t get a driver, so why send out tickets?” asked Lyndsey not unreasonably.

“The kids all knew [named driver] was retiring. Why didn’t they? I don’t understand.

“Even if this notice was a couple of weeks, there’s literally no other alternative in the village – no taxis, no local bus, no nothing. Just walk, or nothing.

“The Local Link goes nowhere near the school. It’s absolutely disgraceful,” she said.

Bus Éireann did offer a conditional half-compromise.

“In the meantime, the Department of Education will issue you a grant payment called the ‘Exceptional No Service Interim Grant’ to help cover the cost of getting your child to school yourself,” said the Bus Éireann spokesperson.

“This payment will be based on how many days your child goes to school and will be paid after the service starts.

“You don’t need to apply for this payment – staff from the School Transport Section of the Department will contact you directly if you’re eligible.

“As the payment is based on the number of days a child attends school up until the time a service has commenced it cannot be paid in advance,” they stated.

“They don’t tell you how much the grant is, and they need us to tell them how much attendance. Every day!” Lyndsey, said.

“Some of them [families] have cars, but I don’t drive. I just don’t know.

“It’s a constant, constant battle all the time.

“You wouldn’t think in this day and age that this would be happening,” said Lyndsey.

She and the other parents are grateful to cllr Mark Leigh for helping to bring this into the public domain.

“At this at the eleventh hour, it’s dreadful, and especially after the huge fight we had in 2022 to get the service,” said cllr Leigh.

However, all is not yet lost, as Lyndsey has set up a support page on Facebook “to raise awareness for people in the same situation to add their stories to it” – and it has already garnered 548 members.

Check out BusEireann/DeptEdSchoolBusProblems on Facebook to add support.