As pupils across the country prepare to head back to school this week, for some, school transport is once again an issue and there have been calls for a complete overhaul and modernisation of the scheme.
In east Galway, parents of children in a couple of areas say they are being discriminated against and have appealed for alterations to their school bus routes. Independent Councillor Geraldine Donohue has taken up their cases, and says nothing has changed in 42 years since she herself was in a similar situation.
In 1981, Ms Donohue's parents kept her and her brother out of school for ten weeks on principle, in a dispute over the route of the bus to take them to school.
In the end the route was altered to accommodate them, and she still has the letter sent to her father from the Department of Education telling him there would be an extension to the route.
The experience of being ten weeks late to school all because of bureaucracy has remained with her, she said, and it's time to get rid of all the "malarkey" in the scheme and bring it up to date to meet the demand for the service.
The school transport scheme is managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and to date this year 98% of tickets have been issued to eligible and concessionary students who have applied and paid or given medical card details on time. This is an increase of 22% in tickets issued compared to the same time last year, the Department says.
Children are considered eligible for the scheme if they meet certain criteria in terms of distance from their chosen primary or post-primary school, and if there are spare seats on a route they are given to children on a concessionary basis.
In Seefin, Co Galway, Doreen Keane has two children with concessionary tickets to go to secondary school in Athenry, but she says there should be no such thing as concessionary tickets, children should get them as a right.
About 50 houses have been built on their road over the past 20 years, she says, and the system has not caught up with the reality. The children with concessionary tickets have to be driven or walk between 3km and 12.5km to the allocated spot for pick up.
In her case the children have to be dropped off for 7.30am, and there is constant juggling in relation to pick-up after school.
She, and other parents in the area, are calling for an alteration to the route to travel along their road so they do not have to wait several kilometres away outside someone else's house to be picked up in all weathers.
Ms Keane says it is very stressful each September, particularly if a child is starting school, and she says there are still students waiting to see if they will get tickets for the bus this term.
The reality, she says, is that in rural areas there will always be homes a good distance from designated bus stops. Parents are working, with some travelling into Galway city 20km away, and it is a daily challenge to manage getting children to and from school.
There should be a system, she says, where all children who need a school bus service are entitled to get it and not be dependent on whether there is a spare, concessionary ticket going.
At the national school in Lough Cutra, Co Galway, some parents who have received concessionary bus tickets to bring their children to school say they may not use them at all because they are concerned about the safety of where they are expected to leave and collect their children for the bus.
It's at the entrance to Lough Cutra Castle, and parents say it's too dangerous a spot next to a busy road.
Instead, they are asking that the bus route be altered to collect the children from their homes as other children are.
Michelle Diviney, a parent who is also Vice Principal at the school, says the alteration to the route would facilitate 14 children. They have huge issues already with safety at the school, she says, because it's on such a busy main road and six teachers have to be out supervising when children are going home to make sure everyone is safe.
There is a real need to reduce the number of cars coming to the school, she said, and the route change would help with this if the children were able to take the bus rather than be driven to school by parents.
While Bus Éireann operates the school transport scheme, it is the Department of Education which dictates the policy on who is eligible for tickets or not. As a result, the routes have to be based on the eligible ticket holders, according to Bus Éireann.
The Department of Education says there are a number of seats available to children who are not eligible "because they are not attending their nearest school, do not meet the distance criteria or have not applied or paid/entered medical card details by the closing date varies from year to year".
"If there is a spare seat, it is allocated on a lottery basis. This is not guaranteed from year to year, because these children are not eligible for the scheme under its terms."
A review of the scheme has been undertaken and is nearing completion, according to the Department, and the final report of the review will include recommendations on its future operation.
The Department says there has been significant consultation as part of the review which is being carried out "with a view to examining the current scheme, its broader effectiveness and sustainability, and to ensure that it serves students and their families adequately".
In Galway, Cllr Geraldine Donohue says it's time the scheme was brought up to date to match the reality of people's lives now. The current system is discriminatory, she says "making fish of one and flesh of another".
She contrasts Dublin, where children can use public transport to get to school, with rural Ireland where that is not an option for most people and says there is clearly a demand there for a proper service for all children who need it.
There also needs to be joined-up thinking, she says, and in this regard the Ministers for Transport and Education need to talk to each other. She says Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan wants to get more cars off the roads and reduce our carbon footprint and a proper school transport scheme would go a long way towards that.
Cllr Donohue says it's time to stop splitting hairs over distance from schools and so forth and bring in a school transport that is fit for purpose.
