A lesson in school transport

REARVIEW:ON AN ALMOST daily basis, another Government minister is out saying something like "the country is broke, we have lost our sovereignty".

It is usually a precursor to him or her justifying some new cut or other. Recently, Minister of State for Education Ciarán Cannon faced an angry group of parents in Co Kerry who were concerned at cuts to the school transport scheme which will see new charges for parents and the dropping of some routes.

The Government points out that savings to the €180 million spent annually on getting kids to and from school are required. I got a bill for €400 last week; €50 for my son in primary and €350 for my son who is starting secondary school (even though the two schools are within walking distance of each other).

It is another difficult bill to contend with for parents who already face rising interest rates, reduced wages, increased taxes, not to mention surging fuel costs.

It can be reasonably argued that services that were previously free, like school transport, are not sustainable in the economic crisis we are now in and what would previously have been described as a double tax is now a necessary evil. I will grin and bear it, pay the bill and move on to the next one.

However, parents up and down the country – and all motorists who have to contend with daily school traffic – deserve a system that is run as efficiently and as cost effectively as possible. I know of three schools in my locality – two primary schools and a secondary school – within 500 metres of each other, yet all have separate bus services.

Surely such inefficiencies must be stamped out while citizens are asked to pay large sums for the school transport system.

Real alternatives to bus and car transport to school must also be investigated, and parents and teachers alike must be assisted in setting up arrangements such as car pooling and safe bicycle transport wherever possible.