Primary pupils face €50 school bus charge

PRIMARY school children will be charged to travel on the school bus for the first time next autumn as part of a €4.5 million savings package on school transport.

Although it is far less than the €500 annual charge proposed for all school bus passengers by An Bord Snip Nua last year, the National Parents Council-Primary warned that the new €50 fee for those travelling to hundreds of rural primary schools is another added cost to families in the budget.

“The families being hit with school bus charges are the same people losing out on child benefit payments and paying higher taxes,” said council chief executive Áine Lynch.