{"id":226617,"date":"2026-01-04T08:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226617\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:48:08","slug":"tipperary-parents-furious-after-special-school-transport-cancelled-on-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226617\/","title":{"rendered":"Tipperary parents furious after special school transport cancelled on New Year\u2019s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Parents of children with disabilities in Tipperary were told on New Year&#8217;s Eve that <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/arid-41246662.html\">school transport<\/a> for next week was cancelled, only to be reversed on Friday afternoon after an outcry.<\/p>\n<p>Edwina McElhinney, of the support group Families Unite for Services and Support (FUSS) Tipperary, said many parents were first contacted on Wednesday about the shock cancellations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Bus \u00c9ireann told parents, in an email seen by the  Irish Examiner, that contractors previously used could no longer supply the service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It said it was working on a solution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It also advised applying for an interim special transport grant, and information on it would be sent to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> A Bus \u00c9ireann spokesman said the services were &#8221; unavoidably suspended following outcome of a recent court case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He added: &#8220;This verdict followed a thorough investigation by the CCPC, a process that Bus \u00c9ireann has supported from the outset.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He confirmed the Bus \u00c9ireann School Transport team is working on the issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> &#8220;Bus \u00c9ireann would like to apologise to families affected for any inconvenience caused in securing a transport solution,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Children attending Scoil Aonghusa, Scoil Chormaic, and a pre-school were to be affected, Ms McElhinney said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt has ruined the holidays for these parents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            These children are travelling long distances to get to school, some upwards of an hour to get to special schools.\u00a0\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Parents were also fearful that their children would struggle to adapt to a new transport routine or would be devastated to miss out on schooling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The families were supported by local politicians, including Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy, chairman of the Oireachtas committee on transport. His office was in touch with senior Bus \u00c9ireann officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Children with special needs were \u201cat the core\u201d of the problem, Mr Murphy said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4918112_8_articleinline_Edwina_20McElhinney_20Fuss_20Tipperary_20Founder_206_1_.jpg\" alt=\"Edwina McElhinney, a founder of Fuss Tipperary.\u00a0 at her home in Cahir. 'It has ruined the holidays for these parents,' she said.\u00a0File picture: John D Kelly\" title=\"Edwina McElhinney, a founder of Fuss Tipperary.\u00a0 at her home in Cahir. 'It has ruined the holidays for these parents,' she said.\u00a0File picture: John D Kelly\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Edwina McElhinney, a founder of Fuss Tipperary.\u00a0 at her home in Cahir. &#8216;It has ruined the holidays for these parents,&#8217; she said.\u00a0File picture: John D Kelly<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThese parents were absolutely distraught,\u201d he said, noting that specially adapted vehicles are needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A new operator, J&amp;K Coaches, was only sourced on Friday afternoon, parents were told in a fresh round of emails.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Independent councillor Liam Browne gave credit to Ms McElhinney and Scoil Aonghusa principal Siobhan Ryan for their frantic efforts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI\u2019d imagine this is a temporary solution until a permanent solution is found,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He noted that a tender process would be required to offer a new permanent contract. He expects more information will be available next week.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents of children with disabilities in Tipperary were told on New Year&#8217;s Eve that school transport for next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11246,835,42,43,40,38,41,39,2738],"class_list":["post-226617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-childrens-health","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}