Parents blamed for school bus seat fiasco

BUS ÉIREANN has blamed parents for hampering efforts to sort out school bus places by failing to pay their children’s transport fees on time - even though they have no guarantee of a seat.

As secondary schools begin to reopen today following the summer holidays, students in some parts of the country still do not know if they have a place on the school bus due to problems meeting new safety standards that require one seat per student instead of the old three students per two seats arrangement.

Some 7,500 students faced being left without a place when the new arrangement was announced last month although the figure is expected to be much smaller by the time the full school bus fleet is on the road later this week.