Parents are waiting for a seat on school buses for their children

Thousands of families are waiting to hear if their children will be given a seat on a school bus this year following a massive surge in demand for places after the Government announced it was waiving school transport fees for a year.

Politicians say they have been inundated with pleas for help from worried parents, with some claiming they were told that their children had missed out under a lottery scheme despite having paid for the service for years.

Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport scheme for the Government, said it was working through applications but could only issue tickets when “extra buses and drivers are sourced”. It attributed delays to an “unprecedented” surge in applications after the Coalition announced in July that parents would not have to pay for the service for the upcoming school year to help amid the cost of living crisis.

By the deadline of July 29, the company claimed to have received a record 130,000 applications for school bus tickets, of which 44,300 were from first-time users.

The interim reprieve, according to Fianna Fáil Senator Fiona O'Loughlin, was "a wonderful measure," but it necessitated the hiring of additional drivers and buses.

She stated, "I have received a deluge of requests from anxious and stressed parents whose children have had concessionary tickets for a number of years but can no longer be accommodated due to the rising demand.

When there was space on a bus route, historically, concessionary tickets were offered to students who did not necessarily fit the requirements for the scheme, such as those who did not attend the closest school.

"I fully believe that priority must be given to those who satisfy the criteria, but I have spoken to parents who have had two or three kids use discounted tickets for five or even six years who were suddenly told that they will not have a seat come September," Ms. O'Loughlin said.

The senator from Co. Kildare reported that parents have been in touch with her to indicate that they are thinking about quitting their jobs or getting a second car to send their kids to school. "What do you do if there is no public transportation? Typically, these are residents of rural hinterlands.

Verona Murphy, an independent TD, claimed that some parents in her district had expressed outrage over the "chaos" the policy had caused. She charged "hundreds" of students in Co. Wexford of being "denied a spot on their local school bus this year" and criticised the government for its "poor preparation."

Bus Éireann reportedly told John Halpenny, chairman of the Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland, that the quantity of applications for the programme had left it "overwhelmed." According to him, private businesses are subcontracted by Bus Éireann to operate about 96% of school bus services.

A mandated retirement age of 70 for bus drivers is aggravating the problem by removing buses from the road, he said, adding that "the problem is there aren't enough coaches out there and it is just a week until schools reopen."

Free transportation is fantastic, but it should have been planned and advertised sooner. We need to have all gathered around the table and assessed the options. It is impossible to organise everything in one week.

Bus Éireann acknowledged that more than 100,000 tickets had been distributed but added that it was still reviewing applications and would "issue tickets as soon as additional buses and drivers are sourced and made available to provide transportation for the higher numbers qualifying for the service."

A representative said: "Unfortunately, the extraordinary volume of new applicants for the upcoming school year has resulted in some delays in delivering tickets."

According to Bus Éireann, availability of seats for people who typically receive discounted tickets changes from year to year and "cannot be guaranteed throughout the entirety of a child's school education cycle."

The State bus company refused to corroborate parents' assertions that they were informed that seats were assigned via a lottery mechanism. It stated that until it has processed all of the applications received, it will not have an estimate of the number of students who were not awarded a seat.