Jackie Cahill Condemns School Bus Crisis On Kilcommon-Thurles Route

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Image: Bus Éireann

Thurles Based TD Jackie Cahill has called for an additional bus to be provided on the School bus service on the Kilcommon to Thurles route.

He said that Bus Éireann has this morning notified the families of 22 secondary school students in the Kilcommon area that they will not be provided with school transport to Thurles this academic year. The crisis arises following a random allocation process by Bus Éireann this week which meant that 22 students will be left without school bus tickets.

The Deputy explained that this is due to the Thurles schools not meeting the strict rule of being the first or second closest school to the Kilcommon area. Deputy Cahill has written to Bus Éireann and to the Minister for Education requesting that urgent action be taken to provide an additional school bus for the route. He said deciding bus ticket allocations based purely on the metric of kilometres from the school does not suit a scenario like this and I believed a more nuanced approached needs to be taken.

“It is environmental madness to tell 22 families to drive their children to school rather than providing a bus. It will lead to further traffic congestion in Thurles at rush hour each morning and evening, and it will also have a major impact on the lives of busy parents who will now have to try and reschedule their entire days for school runs.” Concluded Deputy Cahill