A group of parents in Co Meath walked 15km to school this morning to highlight a lack of school bus places.
Around 20 students and parents who have been left without a school bus place walked from Ballivor to school in Trim.
Many other students across the country have been affected by a lack of places on the school bus system.
It comes after the Government made the service free of charge, which resulted in an increase in registrations.
Additional funding was made available in the Budget for the school transport scheme this year.
However, parents in Ballivor this morning questioned why their children still have no place.
Karen Doogue is a mother of two children who attend secondary school in Trim.
"My eldest is in Transition Year this year and my youngest is in Junior Cert. We got concessionary tickets in previous years and this year, we got no tickets," she said.
"It's having a detrimental impact on us, in and out of Trim twice a day. With the price of diesel, the wear and tear on my car, it’s just really tough."
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Lei Barr has a 14-year-old son in 2nd year in Boyne Community School in Trim.
"All the children should get free transport. My son is getting the Local Link bus at the minute, but it brings him to school very early and brings him home late," said Ms Barr.
Lillian Lee has a son and daughter attending secondary school in Trim. They both had concessionary passes before this year.
"It's a terrible inconvenience and comes at a huge cost. We do an extra 300km a week," she said.
"I always understood about concessionary tickets but this year, in my view, the minister announcing free transport for all students overrides concessionary tickets," she said.
"Our children should have a ticket for the bus," she added.
In a statement, the Department of Education said that to date more than 126,000 tickets have been issued to children travelling on mainstream School Transport Scheme services.
The department said that more than 88,800 of the tickets were issued to eligible pupils and because applications are still being processed, numbers are still being finalised for this school year.
A department spokesperson said additional funding had been made available in the Budget to provide free school transport to children who had concessionary tickets for bus transport last year and who had applied in time for inclusion in this year’s scheme.
However, the department said that that is subject to capacity considerations.
A spokesperson said constraints in sourcing vehicles and drivers in certain areas of the country may mean that it could take a "number of weeks" to explore solutions for additional capacity.
It said a review of the School Transport Scheme is underway since February 2021 and is expected to be completed in the coming months, with recommendations expected to follow.
In a statement, Bus Eireann, the company operating the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of Education, said it would like to acknowledge the unprecedented demand for the school transport scheme this year.
It said to date, more than 5,200 tickets have been issued for school transport in Co Meath for this school year - an 18% increase on the previous year.
