Gallagher calls for school transport scheme to be rolled out quickly

Local Election candidate, Alma Gallagher, has called for the school transport scheme recommendations to be rolled out quickly and be in place for the next school year.

Under the recommendations, the distance criteria for children to be eligible to access school transport will be reduced from 3.3km to 2km initially, with a further reduction to 1km to follow at a later date. 

Ms Gallagher has said families have ‘waited long enough’ and the recommendations must be immediately adopted and for implementation to begin so that sufficient capacity is in place come the new school year in September.

“There is a suggestion in the report that some of the recommendations could take until 2030 to be implemented and that simply isn’t good enough” she added.

Additionally, the criteria restricting the transport so it only applies to the nearest school will no longer be in place.  

Currently, 13.3 percent of children in Mayo primary schools make use of the scheme, with those numbers rising to 32.5 percent for secondary school children across the county. 

“We won’t want a situation next September like what parents and children experienced at the beginning of the current school year, where some parents were left with no transport despite availing of the scheme annually up to that point,” said Ms Gallagher. 

The Claremorris candidate said it must be ensured there is ‘enough capacity’  in place to ‘cover all the schools in the area’.

Ms Gallagher said drivers and bus contractors must be ‘incetivised’ to join the programme, as they would play a ‘pivotal role’ in the scheme that is ‘vitally important’ to the community. 

The Fine Gae concillor said without the service, many families will ‘experience challenges in getting their children to and from school, while also maintaining employment’. 

“By ensuring we have a proper school transport system in place it also reduces the number of vehicles on local roads, making our roads safer” she added.

Ms Gallagher called the implementation of the plan a ‘win win’ for the community.

“I will be pressing the Department of Education and the other bodies involved to make sure we see progress on this matter as soon as possible,” concluded Ms Gallagher.