One-year reprieve for South Galway pupils

PUPILS from Gort and Kinvara have been given a one-year reprieve in relation to their school transport arrangements. Pupils eligible for the School Transport Scheme from South Galway will be able to avail of the existing joint transport catchment area for Seamount College and Gort Community School for another school year, it has emerged.

Last May, the Minister of State with responsibility for lifelong learning and school transport, Sean Haughey announced that the current shared transport catchment arrangement would be coming to an end this year. The parents’ association of Gort Community School campaigned against these proposed changes, holding a meeting in December and one again last week. The end of the arrangement would have meant that from the new school year, pupils availing of the school transport scheme would only be entitled to transport to the school nearest to them.
Such a move would have resulted in a withdrawal of school transport services to children from New Quay, Doorus, Kinvara, Northampton, Ballinderreen and Kiltiernan, who wish to go to secondary school in Gort. Young people from these areas account for one quarter of the 800-strong pupil population of Gort Community School. It would also have meant that new Seamount pupils in the Gort area would not be eligible for transport to Kinvara under the School Transport Scheme.
At the meeting organised by the Gort parents’ association in December, it was decided to contact Minister Haughey asking him to reverse his decision and continue with the existing school transport arrangements in the shared catchment area for an additional year 2011-12.
The group was unable to obtain a meeting or a positive response from him until the morning of the last week’s meeting, when the school received a call from local Fianna Fáil TD, Michéal Kitt, who stated Minister Haughey had contacted him by fax the night before saying the existing shared-transport catchment arrangement is to remain in place for a further year.
The announcement means that new first-year pupils to Gort Community School and Seamount College can continue for a further year with the current bus service. The Government U-turn was welcomed by the Gort parents.
“We are delighted to get a one-year reprieve but this will be a nationwide problem next year so we will still be asking the politicians to look at this again. I think a lot of people don’t realise that this is not just a South Galway issue but this will affect schools nationwide,” said a spokesperson for Gort Community School Parents’ Association.
More than 60 people attended the meeting last week, including six candidates in the upcoming General Election.