People power wins bus passes for school children in Cork city 

About fifty children in Cork will no longer have to walk miles to school and brave a busy three-lane roadway, after they were found eligible for school bus passes this week.

The primary school pupils were initially left without transport after their Douglas Rochestown Educate Together NS was relocated to Carr’s Hill from Garryduff, even though the distance they had to walk exceeded a 3.2km limit criteria for school bus passes.

People power triumphed in the end, said local parent John Collier, who organised a petition for the schoolchildren, mostly from The Oval and Fort Hill.

“I had a lot of parents on to me saying how grateful they were, particularly those who weren’t able to drive,” said Mr Collier, who thanked local politicians for lobbying Bus Éireann.

The petition attracted nearly 1,000 signatures. 

“It worked in the end. It’s a shame we had to fight for it. It’s something that we should have got automatically,” said Mr Collier.

The current route the children have to walk takes them up a national road and then across three lanes of busy traffic before heading down a narrow road with no pathways to the school.

“As parents, we are reassured that our children will get to and from school safely,” said Mr Collier. 

“It won’t take a massive amount of time out of our day either. Secondly, it will reduce the amount of cars exiting the school every single day, hopefully easing up traffic for those living in the area too.” 

Mr Collier said Bus Éireann will start the contract process soon and the new regime should start in a few weeks. Parents who don’t drive had to rely on other parents to bring their children to school. 

“It will be a huge stress relief for everyone involved now that we will be able to get the kids to school safely,” added Mr Collier.

Douglas Labour Party Cllr Peter Horgan welcomed the news that students in Mount Oval will now be deemed eligible for the school transport after being excluded but said it underlines the need for universal school transport.

“This is a great victory for the parents and school community who rallied but it exposes the gaping hole in school transport policy,” said Mr Horgan. “Only now we see fees being discussed for school transport but not a mention of expanded capacity. 

"What parents have consistently told me is that they are willing to pay for school transport if it guaranteed the seat for their child. We need universal school transport for climate action to take cars off the road, to reduce overall costs for parents and to ensure we remove traffic in pinch points like Douglas,” he said.

Given the exceptional circumstances of the case, the relevant children will be considered eligible under the school transport scheme, Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said.