No school transport for 40 Cork kids with special needs

There are 40 children with special needs in Cork who do not have transport to school, Bus Éireann has said, with the Department of Education saying Cork is one of the worst affected areas in Ireland.

A Bus Éireann spokesperson said that all pupils who were travelling on dedicated school transport services to special schools in Cork under the school transport scheme for children with special educational needs in the 2024/25 school year have been facilitated with transport for the current school year.

However, “the number of new pupils who have applied for school transport to special schools in Cork under the scheme for children with special educational needs and who are not on transport at present is 40”, they said, adding that this figure changes regularly due to pupils being assigned to services as well as new applications being received.

The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth.

“Over 23,000 pupils are travelling on dedicated school transport services for children with special educational needs, including over 2,500 travelling on such services in Cork,” a department spokesperson said.

“Bus Éireann has reported that difficulties have arisen in some localities with a small number of contracted services for a small number of families assigned to special educational needs transport services.

“This has affected some children who had a service in the 2024/25 school year as well as new applicants.

“In some cases, services could not commence as expected due to driver/contractors being unavailable at short notice.

"In other cases, zero bids were received for a service, despite repeated efforts to procure one.”

The spokesperson added: “Transport challenges for SEN services are concentrated in some parts of the country, particularly Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kildare, and Meath.

“In such circumstances where there is no existing suitable service available to meet a child’s needs, and while Bus Éireann are in the process of establishing the service for the child, the department will offer an Interim Special Transport Grant (STG) to families of eligible children towards the cost of making private transport arrangements.”

The information was provided to Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould, who told The Echo that to be this far into the school year while 40 children are still without transport in Cork alone was “completely unacceptable”.

“Many of these children are in schools on the other side of the city or county. 

"Their parents accepted these school places, after a trojan fight for them, because they were told that there would be transport in place.”

He said that many parents are forced to miss work or their children cannot attend school, and “this chaos happens year after year”.