Parents and students in south Cavan have urged the Department of Education to "save our seats" as they protested today over school bus seat allocations.
On the first day back to school, 18 secondary school students protested with their parents as the A20 bus passed by at Killydoon at around 7.30am this morning.
The students, who are from the Mullahoran/Kilnaleck area of Cavan, were informed by Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of Education, that there were no seats available for them on the route for this school year.
The affected students had been on what are called "concessionary tickets", which means they are not guaranteed a seat as they do not attend their geographically nearest school.
The children impacted reside in the Granard/Ballyjamesduff school catchment areas but attend school in Cavan town.
Ciara Donohoe from Ballymachugh has two children attending secondary schools in Cavan town in 2nd year and 5th year.
Both children had been on the school bus previously, on concessionary tickets.
"You're not guaranteed a seat but it's never been an issue before," she said.
Ms Donohoe said she got emails at the start of this month from Bus Éireann to say the bus was at capacity, leaving her children without a place on the bus.
The email said that Bus Éireann had exhausted all avenues to accommodate pupils and it was not open to them to create additional capacity or engage additional vehicles.
"It's just not practical. I'm a nurse, my husband is a teacher. We are in opposite directions. Carpooling isn't an option. For that hour in the morning, how are we supposed to get them into school?" she said.
"We cannot pick them up, we aren't finished work in time."
Ms Donohoe said that the "only solution is a bigger bus" so that all children can be catered for.
Her husband was able to bring her children to school today, but she said she has "no idea" how they will get there from now on.
"We're going to have to start begging and pleading with people to leave them in, or I'm going to be late for work," she said.
Primary school children are eligible for transport where they reside "not less than 3.2km from and are attending their nearest national school," while post primary students are eligible where they reside "not less than 4.8 km from and are attending their nearest post primary school".
Bus Éireann said that all eligible pupils on the A20 route who applied and paid on time and who meet the criteria have been issued tickets.
It said the priority for arranging school transport is to those who are deemed eligible based on current eligibility criteria.
"Concessionary seats are not guaranteed every year and can only be offered where there are spare seats on an existing school transport service," it said.
Bus Éireann said that there may be excess demand over supply for concessionary places, and in these cases, it will allocate tickets for spare seats using an agreed selection process.
The Department of Education said that all eligible pupils on the A20 route who applied on time and who meet the criteria have been issued with tickets.
It said children who are not eligible may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only and will be facilitated where spare seats are available, after eligible children are accommodated.
The Department said that so far, more than 138,000 school transport scheme tickets have been issued to families for the 2024/2025 school year.
"Bus Éireann is continuing to allocate tickets as planning for routes is finalised. Families who are unsuccessful in obtaining a seat have been notified via email and a refund will be issued," it said.
A review of the School Transport Scheme was completed in February of this year.
It recommended expanding access to the scheme to an additional 100,000 pupils by 2030.
Recommended changes included the expansion of eligibility criteria, addressing current operational challenges and moving towards better integration with public transport.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said these are to be implemented on a phased basis from next month, and it is intended, "subject to resources", that revised eligibility criteria be implemented in the 2025/2026 school year.
