A Cork TD has called the Department of Education's policy on eligibility for the School Transport Scheme as "Daft"
Cork South Central TD, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire was addressing a question to the Minister of Education, Norma Foley, about Douglas Rochestown Educate Together National Sschool at Mount Oval.
Pupils at the school have been told they are ineligible for the School Transport Scheme because they are within 3.2 km of their local primary school.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Education, Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire says the Department's definition of a traversable route is bizarre:
"The rule says to be eligible that the school has to be more than 3.2 kilometres by a traversable route. What the Department and Bus Éireann have come back with is a diagram showing the traversable route, which is not accessible by foot, by bike, or by car, in any kind of legal or safe manner. It requires cars going out the wrong way onto a slip road, to what will soon be a motorway, what's currently a national primary. The Department is, in some emails to parents, saying "well, it doesn't even need to be traversable in practice".
