More than 30 children and young people in Co Galway are set to begin the new school year without access to school transport, prompting parents to call for urgent intervention from the Minister for Education.
Demand for the School Transport Scheme, operated by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education, continues to increase.
In 2025, more than 181,000 children and young people availed of the scheme, an increase of 50% since 2019.
While demand has risen, the rules governing the scheme have remained largely unchanged, leaving many families falling foul of the requirement that their children attend their nearest school.
Under Department of Education policy, children are generally eligible for school transport if they live at least 3.2km from their nearest national school or 4.8km from their nearest post-primary school.
To qualify, they must normally attend their nearest school, although exemptions apply in certain cases involving religious ethos or language preferences.
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But if places are not available in the nearest school, many families are left unable to secure a seat on the bus, with those deemed ineligible often relying on the uncertain allocation of concessionary places.
‘I’ve got a problem’
In Clarinbridge, Co Galway, the situation has become particularly acute this year.
Caroline O’Laochdha’s son Rian will begin first year at Presentation College in Athenry later this month, but he will not be making the 13km journey on a school bus.
Before the May deadline, Ms O’Laochdha applied for a bus ticket for Rian under the School Transport Scheme.
The family was informed in July that because they live closer to Calasanctius College in Oranmore, he was not eligible for a seat on a bus travelling to Athenry.
Speaking to This Week on RTÉ Radio 1, Ms O’Laochdha said the family did not apply to the Oranmore school because of oversubscription and its feeder-school admissions policy.
“We wouldn’t get in based on the feeder school system, so we applied to the schools whereby the Clarinbridge schools were feeder schools.
“So we’re in a little bit of predicament at the moment. We’ve two younger kids that we’ve to drive to a country school in Killeeneen and then we have to bring them to Athenry.
“We’re both working full-time and we’ve also got the care of an elderly parent who’s living with us full-time with dementia,” she said.
The uncertainty has placed additional pressure on the family.
“We haven’t retold our son yet, I think he thinks he’s going on the bus, to be honest.
“We’ve kind of said there’s a little bit of trouble with it and we’ll find a way to get him there.
“It’s stressful. I started a new job on Monday and one of the first discussions that I had with my line manager was, I’ve got a problem,” she said.
Mother of triplets says chances of place are slim
Tracey McHugh from nearby Kilcolgan is the mother of triplets who will start secondary school in Athenry this month.
Like Ms O’Laochdha, she believed her chances of securing three places in the nearest geographical school Calasanctius College in Oranmore were slim.
She said: “The only place that we could realistically get a school place is Athenry but that instantly means that we’re not eligible for a mandatory ticket.
“The nearest geographical school is massively oversubscribed and gives priority to schools in the immediate vicinity and that is their right, and I understand that.
“It just means that if you attend schools in this local area, if you don’t have an in, like you don’t have a sibling, you don’t have a parent who works there, you fall with just under a 2% chance of successfully getting a place at your nearest geographical school.
“But they’re actually a lot higher on the selection criteria for Athenry. So understandably, for many, many years, children are heading out towards Athenry and the applications are directed out in that direction.”
In 2025, Athenry was selected as one of five towns nationwide to pilot the Department of Education’s single online application system, applytoschool.ie. Presentation College, Clarin College and Coláiste an Eachréidh participated in the pilot, which aimed to streamline first-year and special class admissions.
Transport difficulties should have been anticipated, says parent
Ms McHugh believes the transport difficulties should have been anticipated.
“Nationally, Athenry was recognised as being a high demand area. They were chosen as one of the new areas for the new secondary school application system, so that’s going to roll out nationally in theory this year.
“So we were actually applying through the new pilot but there’s no logistical connect the dots. So they recognise it’s a high demand area, but there’s a disconnect with how these students are expected to get to school,” she said.
Presentation College Athenry’s principal Cathal Moore said: “I suppose from our point of view we don’t understand it from the point of view that school places are settled.
“There is no new students coming to our school in the other year groups from second year to sixth year.
“The new students are only coming in first year and the single enrolment means that we know that earlier now.”
While school transport is outside the remit of schools, Mr Moore said travelling by bus remains the safest option for the more than 1,000 students who attend.
“The danger in the school campus is being created by students not travelling on buses and they are pedestrians who are going for lifts, crossing across the buses on their way out so I suppose as a school we would prefer if everybody came on a bus and I suppose climate wise wouldn’t it make more sense for everybody as well,” he said.
A 2024 review of the School Transport Scheme recommended expanding access to an additional 100,000 students by 2030 and removing the requirement to attend the nearest school.
Presentation College Athenry participated in a pilot of the Department of Education’s single online application system
While those changes are being introduced on a phased basis through pilot programmes, for Clarinbridge parent Kenny Walsh, who was unable to secure a place in the nearest school for his oldest child or a bus ticket to Athenry, progress is too slow.
“My son has gone into transition year, my daughter has gone into second year. We have no school transport for our daughter or our son.
“The Government has acknowledged in a transport review that the policies are at odds and they’re not fit for purpose and apparently there’s a rollout of this new policy up to 2030.
“We’re not seeing any of that rollout and we don’t know what the plan is for rolling it out over the next couple of years,” he said.
Mr Walsh believes the shortage of school transport places will continue to be an annual occurrence for families in the area.
“Particularly for new parents going into first year, there really is no opportunity to see anything else other than this being the situation every summer at the end of July that they have to start going through this campaign to try and get a school bus for their kids.”
With no additional bus available through the School Transport Scheme, parents in Clarinbridge have tried to explore alternative options.
For Tracey McHugh the costs of funding a private bus service for her three children to get to Athenry this year proved unworkable.
“For me personally, based on the costs that were run very kindly by a parent in the group, it was €12.90 a day per child. So we were looking at approximately €190 a week for the three.
“And if we base it on the minimum school days for post-primary, we’re looking at over €6,000, which isn’t feasible. So it’s either the bus ticket or we’re on the road burning diesel,” she said.
In response to the concerns raised in Clarinbridge, a Department of Education spokesperson told RTÉ News that the School Transport Scheme is operated by Bus Éireann.
Bus Éireann said more than 130,000 tickets have already been issued for the 2026/27 school year. Further tickets will be allocated in the coming weeks and, where demand exceeds spare capacity, a selection process is used.
The issue is not confined to Galway.
Councillor contacted by more than 80 parents in Navan
Aontú councillor Emer Tóibín said she has been contacted by more than 80 parents in Navan, Co Meath, regarding school transport problems ahead of the new academic year and believes the issue is widespread.
The complaints have prompted her to seek figures from Bus Éireann and the Department of Education.
“I sent an e-mail looking for a full picture in terms of the numbers that apply and the demand that is met.
“That’s gone in at least two weeks ago, I’ve had no response yet. I know they’re incredibly busy at this time of the year, but I hope to get that information back.
“It’s like any crisis or any system that’s overwhelmed, we need to be able to measure the level of demand, measure the number of operators that are in the country that provide the service for the government.
“And if we don’t have all that information to hand, we can’t really make any inroads to ensure that demand is met,” she said.
For Ms McHugh and other families in Clarinbridge, the wait for a solution continues.
She said: “We aren’t looking for anything that hasn’t been recommended by their own department in the transport review, the 2030 transport review. Everything that we’re asking for is absolutely in line with their own recommendations. When is it going to happen?”
With the start of the school year approaching, Kenny Walsh believes any immediate solution will require ministerial intervention.
“I acknowledge the rules that are there at the moment, and what happens is Bus Éireann are just referring us back to those rules, and that’s I guess that’s in their remit.
“So it is up to ministers and up to government to realise that those rules are not fit for purpose for this community at this time and to address them,” he said.