A Kilnamona mother says parents have been left in limbo following the cancellation of the local school bus.
Raelene Fitzgerald is among the 38 families affected by the cancellation of the Inagh to Ennis route last Thursday, which its understood is due to staff shortages.
Bus Éireann has apologised to the families affected and says its local office in Limerick is doing everything possible to secure a replacement resource, in order to allow the service to recommence as soon as possible.
Raelene says she and other parents want clarity as to if, or when, the situation will be resolved.
Listen back to the full interview here:
Statement From Bus Éireann:
Bus Éireann operates the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of Education. To date, we have issued over 3,780 school transport tickets to students in County Clare for the 2022/23 school year, an increase of 24% from the previous year.
The service to Ennis Post Primary School Centre from Inagh to Ennis was unavoidably temporarily suspended as Bus Éireann was informed that the driver is unwell. Despite significant efforts made by Bus Éireann’s local school transport office in liaising with Contractors in the area, there is currently no contractor driver available to operate this service at present.
To date, Bus Éireann school transport offices across Ireland have issued over 126,000 tickets for mainstream school transport. Safety is the number one priority in the operation of the school transport scheme. While 90% of services are contracted locally, Bus Éireann applies stringent assessments of each driver on 8,000 school routes. This includes vetting and background checks, which can take a period of time to process.
We would like to apologise to the families affected by this but want to reassure parents that the local office in Limerick is doing everything possible to try and secure a replacement resource in order to allow the service to recommence as soon as possible. Bus Éireann’s local school transport office will provide an update to the families impacted as soon as a suitable resource is available.
