School bus rule changes are an attack on rural Ireland, claim teachers

CHANGES to school bus rules are an attack on rural Ireland and will mean new pupils travelling to different schools or their parents paying fares that are four times what they pay for their older brothers and sisters, teachers claimed yesterday.

When hundreds of rural schools were closed in the 1960s and 1970s, commitments were made to those communities that transport would be provided to newly formed amalgamated schools for families whose children previously attended the closed schools. But the closed schools rule was amended in last December’s budget, meaning new pupils at those schools from September 2012 will no longer be automatically eligible for free or reduced cost travel.

Joe Lyons from the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation’s Limerick city branch told the union’s annual congress that children in those areas were entitled to expect that commitments made when their own local school was closed should be honoured.

He said from September 2012 pupils would be entitled to a bus to the nearest school, “so families will be split with older siblings going to different schools to younger brothers and sisters, but only if there are enough children to justify the bus”.

“But more than likely, new entrants will have to pay €200 for a service on the same bus that their brothers and sisters will be getting for €50. The money saved is minuscule in the context of the overall budget,” Mr Lyons said.

Fiona O’Connor, of the Kenmare branch, said the change affects one community in her district where three schools were amalgamated in 1973.

“In the past, it would have been unthinkable for parents to send their children to schools outside their parish, but the financial pressures being exerted on parents [by these changes] will ruin small rural parishes around the country,” she said.

Mary O’Connor, a Listowel branch delegate, said there would be increased reliance on cars to get children to school, leading to greater danger for pupils on the way to and outside schools, as well as being detrimental to the environment.

Meanwhile, Noreen Flynn, from Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, and a teacher at Mater Dei Primary School in Basin Lane, Dublin 8, became INTO president last night. She took over from Jim Higgins, who chaired the congress in his native Sligo this week.

Anne Fay, principal of St Joseph’s National School, Fermoy, Co Cork, is the union’s new vice-president.