Tag Archives: School transport

THE EDUCATION minister has said she will examine a situation whereby secondary school students in parts of North East Clare have missed out on public school transport for the current academic year. Minister Norma Foley was responding to Deputy Michael McNamara during a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Education. The Scariff TD highlighted how post-primary students in the Whitegate area, who previously held concessionary tickets for transport to Scariff Community College (SCC), did not qualify for a school bus place this year, under the terms of the new school transport scheme unveiled in July. Deputy McNamara outlined how the criteria disqualified some students in the Whitegate area from securing a bus place to SCC, as it had marked Woodford in County Galway as their closest school. He described the road from Whitegate to Woodford, which was identified, by the Department, as the shortest route as little more than a “forest track” and “not fit for school buses”. He …

ASSURANCES have been given on the arrangements for school transport for Ukrainian pupils who have recently arrived in North Clare. Among them are 26 children who have been welcomed into St Augustine’s National School in Kilshanny. They are part of a group of around 500 people to take up residence in Lisdoonvarna in recent weeks. More than 100 children are being provided with educational facilities, based on availability in neighbouring schools. While the new arrivals were provided with private bus transport for a number of days, the Department of Education has not made any formal provision yet and the children have no other way to get to the school, which is around seven kilometres away. Councillor Joe Garrihy said Lisdoonvarna Fáilte are prepared to do all in their power to welcome new arrivals and ease their access to local services. “We have been searching behind every hedge for bus transport and everyone has been really cooperative, however we did have …