Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is a problem I am hearing about as well. Buses are not full and yet kids have been refused places on them. I know of 29 children from the Rathcoffey-Straffan area. There is no public transport from Straffan into Maynooth secondary school. There is a public bus service from Rathcoffey, but there is not one from Straffan and there are 29 children without a seat. This is all in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis where women are thinking about having to give up work so they can bring their kids to school. I know of another child from Coill Dubh going to Prosperous and who is relying on the 120 bus, which is just not reliable.

The word "reliable" should not be in the same sentence as the 120 bus. Mothers are having to quit work with no warning in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. It is all just a lack of joined-up thinking. The headlines were great - there was to be a free bus na scoile service and it would marvellous and important in the middle of a climate crisis, but it is not delivering. One cannot just announce something and make it happen. Bus Éireann did not get the notice it needed. I want to know what the story is. I have heard Ministers saying they are still looking into it and they are still trying to get places, whereas Bus Éireann says it is over and finished. What is the story there?

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