Last October, Pamela Clarke had put her daughter down for two possible secondary schools. She wanted her to go to the one in Swords, she says.
It’s closer to their home in Ballyboughal, a small village about 7km west of Lusk, she says. “Location-wise, it just suited us better.”
It wasn’t her nearest school. That’s in Lusk. But the bus travelling there is full. Swords is about 10km south of Ballyboughal.
Her daughter was placed on a waiting list for a spot there, she says. “And I would have waited for it.”
But then she was put on a second waiting list, this one for the north Fingal school bus service from Ballyboughal to Swords, she says. “She was ninth on that list, and I was told by the bus driver that I was gonna have to drive her to school next year.”
Clarke works full-time. So does her husband, she says. “That was never gonna work.”
Fortunately, she got a spot in Balbriggan, 13km north-east of Ballyboughal. It was the last spot on a bus to that school, she says. “We were left with a no-brainer. We had no option really.”
That waiting list for a school bus ultimately decided where her daughter went to school is a joke, she said. “It’s frustrating.”
Clarke isn’t the only parent in north Fingal to complain about waiting lists for school buses.
There are at least 18 first-year students spread across Ballyboughal, Naul, Oldtown and Mooretown who want – but don’t have – a seat on a local school bus service, according to a survey carried out by residents in Ballyboughal.
Some affected parents have had to carpool, says Eoghan Dockrell, a local area representative for Fine Gael in Rush. “There’s one woman who had to get a taxi because she is working shifts.”
Dockrell says he and the affected parents are attempting to get the Department of Education to introduce a second school bus, for students on current wait lists.
But a spokesperson for the department said before it can consider this, it needs to be able to identify at least 10 children residing in the Ballyboughal area who are eligible for school transport.
Currently, children are eligible for transport if they are no less than 4.8 km from, and are attending, their nearest school, the spokesperson says.
Waiting lists
Secondary-school students who live in or around Ballyboughal typically take a school bus operated by the provider Ring-a-Link, previously known as North Fingal Rural Transport Initiative (NIFTI), and which operates as part of the Transport for Ireland Local Link service.
But a shortage of seats caught the attention of local parents last year, says Jill Rafter, a single mother living in Ballyboughal. “I just heard that a child didn’t get on the bus, and I was really surprised.”
Rafter had relied on the service since the eldest of her four kids started to use it way back in 2009, she says. “I’m totally dependent on it. It’s my ABCD.”
Layla, her youngest daughter, is due to start in Loreto College Swords this coming September.
And as soon as Rafter learned that the bus was low on spaces, she reached out to the driver to organise a seat for her, she says. “He said, ‘Alright, she’s on the waiting list.’”
It is highly unlikely that Layla will be able to get on the bus this year, Rafter says. “My response was: could we not get a bigger bus? Because when you live out here you’re dependent on it.”
There is a bus that runs to Swords, she says. “But it doesn’t correlate with school times, and it leaves them at the Pavilion.”
The Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre is more than 2km from the school.
“It’s a good hike along the River Valley,” Rafter says. “Grand if it’s dry. But if it’s lashing, you’re saturated. So, there really is nothing unless NIFTI can put on another bus.”
The lack of available seats is adding a huge amount of stress onto the lives of parents, says Elaine O’Brien. “I’m very busy. So is my husband. It’s been tricky to manage, because we have three school runs.”
O’Brien, who is also the principal of Rolestown National School, has a daughter in her first year at Swords Loreto. But she can’t get a bus seat either, she says.
“It’s terrible. The bus collects at the end of our lane. But Grace can’t get on it,” she says.
How many people are affected?
Ballyboughal’s population is growing rapidly, says Majella McGill, a mother of four, the youngest of whom is to start secondary school this September.
But, “as the population has increased, the change in terms of transport hasn’t been looked at”, she said.
In 2016, the town and its surrounding area had 681 people, 48 of whom were between the ages of 10 and 14, Central Statistics Office data shows.
Six years later, the population had risen to 1,115 people, and the number aged between 10 and 14 years was more than double, standing at 114.
Other places similarly affected in north Fingal are Naul, Oldtown, and Rolestown, says Trish Kinsella.
Kinsella, also a resident in Ballyboughal, has a daughter who is due to start in Swords Loreto this autumn, she says. “But there is no bus to bring my daughter there.”
She’s also on the waiting list, she says.
The family had a few secondary schools to choose from, including Swords Community College and Lusk Community College. Those are the nearest, she says. “Swords is pretty much full to capacity.”
And the bus to Lusk is full, says Vanessa Kelleher.
Kelleher’s son currently uses the Lusk bus on a concessionary pass, because he was lucky enough to get one of the remaining seats, she says.
“But there is an increase in people who require a seat in this area, so in September, my son won’t get the pass because there won’t be a seat,” she says.
A concessionary pass is used by children who are not eligible for school transport, but who apply and pay for a space, a department spokesperson says. They are considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated.
Kinsella’s own preference is to send her three daughters to a Loreto secondary school, she says. “I went to a Loreto. My mam went. My sisters. My granny.”
The closest Loreto is in Swords, and her daughter was accepted to go there, as well as Lusk Community College, she says. “But in both scenarios, there is no bus to bring her.”
It wasn’t just Kinsella’s daughter who was affected. Her niece, who started in Swords last September, also couldn’t get a spot, she says.
And when she and other parents began to notice that multiple kids were being affected, Kinsella distributed a survey around Ballyboughal, Oldtown, Rolestown and Naul.
The survey received 179 replies, out of whom 18 are currently attending school in Swords, but were without a bus service, she says. “They’re being brought by their parents.”
This September, there are 37 students due to start, who were put on a waiting list, she says.
Expanding services
Eoghan Dockrell, the Fine Gael local area representative, said he has been in communication with the Department of Education to try to change the situation in places like Ballyboughal.
“But, there are quite onerous conditions in the Department of Education to be eligible for bus transportation,” says Dockrell.
Yet, he says, the whole purpose of the department’s School Transport Scheme should be to provide support to families in these remote areas.
The School Transport Scheme is managed by Bus Éireann, a department spokesperson says, and under its current terms, children at post-primary level are eligible for it if they live at least 4.8km from their nearest school.
A Department of Education review of the scheme has recommended that the distance to a student’s nearest post-primary school be reduced to 2km.
Those rules could still be relaxed more, Dockrell says. “A lot of parents might not pick their nearest schools, because their children might not have been accepted, or a sibling went to another school.”
For those in Ballyboughal and its surrounding area, who can’t access the school buses to Lusk or Swords, he is trying to get them onto the scheme by asking if the Department of Education put out a tender for a second school bus, he says. “We have the bus company lined up for the department.”
The department would need to find ten students eligible for transport, but not currently accommodated on the existing service, in order to add an extra bus, Dockrell says.
“Once they have the 10, then all of the remaining seats can be given on a concessionary basis to other children in Ballyboughal and nearby towns,” he said.