It’s a difference of just a few kilometres, but families in Watergrasshill have been told they have to send their children to Glanmire instead of Fermoy if they are to avail of subsidised school transport.
From today, children are no longer automatically entitled to a subsidised seat on the school bus unless they are going to the secondary school that is nearest to them. The change does not affect students who are already in school.
Up to 10 families in Watergrasshill, where students traditionally go to one of Fermoy’s three secondary schools, have been told they won’t get a seat on the school bus unless they send their children to school in Glanmire. The difference in distance is less than four kilometres.
First-year students in the area have been refused the school bus transport scheme, which gives families a concessionary price, because the secondary school in Glanmire is nearer, according to the Department of Education.
Families have been left with the choice of paying 600 in bus fares in order to keep children in the same school as their siblings, or send them in the opposite direction to Glanmire.
Several parents have been in touch with TDs in recent weeks, to raise concerns about the cost of the change. The cost of the subsidised service is just 350.
One mother, Mary Fitzgerald, already has two children going to secondary schools in Fermoy and she only discovered at the end of June that her third child will not be covered by the transport scheme — after she had sat her entrance exam and been accepted into a school in Fermoy.
She now faces an annual bill of more than 600 a year on bus transport to Fermoy for this child, the same amount as the total cost of sending her other two children to school in the town.
Another Watergrasshill parent, Martin Jenkin, is also sending his first child to secondary school in Fermoy because his family had purchased the uniform and books for that school before discovering they would not be entitled to the school bus transport scheme.
He said they have been denied the school bus transport scheme for children starting in first year because Glanmire and Carrignavar schools are nearer.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said the department is aware that some families are not happy with the new arrangements.
But she said: “The changes were signalled at the time; they were announced in the budget for this year.”
The Department aims to save 17 million from transport costs by 2014.