Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have so many families around the county of Carlow whose children were refused places on the local school bus. For example, Bus Éireann has a private operator in Rathvilly, which is a small rural part of Carlow, but one of the buses is a 24-seater. I have asked for a bigger bus, a 52-seater, which would sort out a huge issue in that area. This bus goes from Rathvilly to Tullow Community School. I am engaging with Bus Éireann on a weekly basis. We are back now. It is the fifth week back in the school term and I am being told there are empty seats on buses. Bus Éireann is telling me that no one has returned their tickets. There are so many children looking for school places this year. I have never seen anything like it. We need to have commonsense, get more buses and bigger buses. It would solve a lot of issues.

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