A SIXMILEBRIDGE teenager has been denied a bus ticket to his Limerick school, leaving his mother perplexed and angry.
Mary Casey’s son Sean is in fourth year at Ard Scoil Rís in Limerick City and she said that other children who travelled on the bus last year were given tickets for this year, but so far Sean has not got one.
“A bus leaves Sixmilebridge every morning for Limerick. Sean had a ticket on that bus last year, every other child who had a ticket on that bus last year got one this year except Sean. I’m trying to figure out how did they select him not to have a ticket.”
Ms Casey said that Government policy changed to allow all people access to bus tickets, even those who had little use for them, and it has meant capacity being exceeded in some cases.
“Basically all parents applied for bus tickets by the end of April and were willing to pay for them. That was all fine, and we probably would all have got tickets.
“Suddenly Norma Foley announced in the month of June that she was giving free tickets to anyone who wanted them, to help hard pressed parents. Another 44,300 people applied for the tickets, obviously because they are free. Many of those people didn’t need them, but they got them ahead of people who had tickets previously and needed them, including Sean.”
She says there has been no explanation of the process by which some children were allocated tickets and others refused them.
“Why did he not get a ticket? Why was he selected to be excluded? Is it alphabetical? Are they all put into a hat? How are they chosen?
“It’s not clear to me how he was deselected for a ticket when everyone else on the bus last year has a ticket, plus any siblings going. I haven’t met any other parents from Sixmilebridge who had a ticket last year and were denied one this year.”
Ms Casey spoke about the problem on local radio recently, and she said many parents contacted her afterwards.
“Other parents have been in touch with me and they’re in an awful state.”
She says that her son now needs to be driven to and from school, and that the same thing is happening to many other children, who have to be dropped off and picked up at unsuitable times.
“Do you know there are children wandering around Ennis, Limerick, Tulla, all these places, because the parents have to drop them so early and they can’t collect them until they finish work?
“It’s absolutely scandalous what’s going on and the whole problem is that Norma Foley announced free tickets for all and didn’t check the capacity.”
She said that Bus Éireann are not responsible for the problem, as they too are catching up with a poorly thought-through policy.
“This new scheme was foisted on them as well, and they’re doing their best, but there’s still a ton of us waiting for tickets.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that while it does not comment on individual cases, but acknowledged that the increased numbers of people accessing tickets has posed problems.
“School transport ticket registration for the 2022/23 school year closed on July 29, by which time almost 130,000 applications/registrations were received for mainstream school transport.
“This figure includes 44,299 new applications as well as roll-overs from the previous school year.
“Already over 121,000 tickets for the 2022/2023 school year have been issued to applicants. Substantial numbers of tickets are being issued each day as applications are processed and services come on stream.
“Bus Éireann will continue to process applications and to issue tickets as soon as extra buses and drivers are sourced and become available to provide transport for the higher numbers qualifying for the service. However, regrettably the unprecedented numbers of new applications for the upcoming school year, has led to some delays in issuing tickets.”
Their reply said that secondary school children travelling to a school other than the two nearest their home are deemed ‘concessionary’ and are allocated tickets based on the availability of a seat when those travelling to one of their two nearest schools have been accommodated.
It said at times there may be an excess of demand over supply for concessionary places.
Clare TD Cathal Crowe said that there had been around 500 similiar issues in the county, with many of them now resolved.
He said he is hopeful that a new bus service will begin, which would resolve the issue.
“Bus Éireann are very interested in running a second bus from Sixmilebridge and Cratloe into Limerick City because there is such a volume of people using the service, but they’re struggling at the moment to get a driver to fulfil the route.”
He said that the new policy has worked well in some cases, and that it resulted in a new bus service from Doora and Quin to Tulla, but there have been problems, and he issued an appeal on social media for parents of pupils who have bus tickets they don’t use to return them.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.