The full extent of the school transport crisis for thousands of students around the country is set to emerge at a meeting between secondary school representatives and Department of Education officials tomorrow.
The meeting - involving local transport liaison officers from the country's 33 vocational education committees and senior representatives of the department - is expected to discuss how to maximise numbers of vacant places allocated to students from outside their local catchment area.
One measure being considered is the introduction of changes to existing schoolbus routes where necessary. This would allow any empty places to be given to students not automatically entitled to a schoolbus place.
Yesterday was the closing date for eligible students to register for a place on their schoolbus for the coming school year. This means availability of seats for thousands of catchment-boundary and other "concessionary" students can now be calculated, as the number of seats available depends on the number of eligible students who apply.
Catchment-boundary and concessionary students are not automatically entitled to places on their schoolbus. But under the three students to every two seats rule, they have often been able to get such places on a yearly basis.
Earlier this month, The Irish Times revealed that over 5,500 of these students may no longer have places due to Government plans to change the "three for two" seating arrangement which previously applied.
However, as a result of plans to review routing, and the extra capacity provided by new buses, some optimism exists that the situation may not be as bad as was previously thought. Up to 10 per cent of eligible students will not take up their seats, a move which could also leave more space for the remaining students. A spokeswoman for the department yesterday said Minister for Education Mary Hanafin was confident there will be adequate capacity to allow most catchment-boundary students using the scheme to continue to do so.
"Students who live nearer to school than the scheme caters for may also avail of transport as a concession where capacity permits."
According to Bus Éireann, catchment-boundary students who are in exam years will be prioritised when it comes to allocating extra seats on buses. Other catchment-boundary students, and then concessionary students who live near to their school, will be prioritised in turn. Last Saturday up to 300 parents and second level students, who may be left without school transport in September, attended a protest in Galway city.
This prompted Green Party spokesman on education, Paul Gogarty, to call for a review of catchment areas and boundaries.