School bus fees to increase 79%

orbital83

Rev up those gas guzzling Mercs and Beemers and pile in the kids.
Our old friend John Gormley is back with another eco friendly measure to add to the CFL bulbs.

LINK

School bus fares to increase 79%
Monday, 13 July 2009 17:18

The school bus service operated by Bus Éireann is to increase fares by 79%.

Secondary school pupils that avail of the Department of Education supported School Transport System will have to pay a substantial increase in bus fees from the end of this month.

The annual fare for school children was €168 a year,

At the end of the month the cost will be €300 for the school year.

Shiny

No mention of John Gormley in your Link.

djpbarry

Moved from Green Issues.

anotherlostie

This seems obscene, at a time when we are cutting back everywhere. Anyone know what the reason is? I could guess that it is to do with cutting the department's subvention of the scheme, but, while JG is not measured, it doesn't seem to tie in with the Green agenda we've seen elsewhere in government policy. Undoubtedly it will put some family cars back on the road again.

Euro_Kraut

Why are you blaming the Greens? This is straight out of the FF play book. Plus Dempsey is the Minister for Finance not Gormley.

mikemac

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Why are you blaming the Greens? This is straight out of the FF play book. Plus Dempsey is the Minister for Finance not Gormley.

Minister for Transport surely?

anotherlostie

But don't the Greens take the plaudits for eco friendly measures that are introduced? I'm not blaming them, but I am surprised at a government containing Greens introducing such a measure.

D'Peoples Voice

anotherlostie wrote: »

But don't the Greens take the plaudits for eco friendly measures that are introduced? I'm not blaming them, but I am surprised at a government containing Greens introducing such a measure.

I thought Green policy was to have people living close to Amenities, so they wouldn't need a lift to school - No?
Are you saying that the Greens' policy is to have loads of one-off housing and then get them to drive to every amenity such as a school?

of course they'll take the plaudits for actions carried out within the departments they have a remit for.

delop

I wonder what the Running costs/ V's wages are...

Run_to_da_hills

Great, more cash strapped parents sending their kids to school on push bikes this coming winter. I hope the RSA have a good safety campaign lined up. :rolleyes:

Idbatterim

E169 for a school years transport! even at double the cost, it probably doesnt go anywhere near breaking even!

KevR

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Great, more cash strapped parents sending their kids to school on push bikes this coming winter. I hope the RSA have a good safety campaign lined up. :rolleyes:

I doubt they have any money left for another campaign after the brilliant (and not at all sexist) campaign they have recently launched. :rolleyes:

crocro

delop wrote: »

I wonder what the Running costs/ V's wages are...

It cost the state €192m last year. It's yet another method of paying people to live in the countryside at the expense of those who live in towns and cities.

antoinolachtnai

A significant amount of the money is held onto by Bus Eireann as an administration fee.

BE/CIE have never tendered to the Department of Education for this contract.

A large proportion of the operations are outsourced to private operators.

You can read about it at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:217:0044:0066:EN:PDF - page 2 on.

alphamale 1

I think the increase is way out of proportion and will only put more pressure of cash strapped families. When will it stop.


How do you start a new thread. I don't see a link to start one??;)

Zoney

crocro wrote: »

It cost the state €192m last year. It's yet another method of paying people to live in the countryside at the expense of those who live in towns and cities.

So what do you propose? Forcibly depopulating most of the country? As it is half the country has emigrated to Dublin - and a lot of good that's done the city.

dowlingm

zoney - surely you would agree that some choices impose disproportionately on other citizens and thus a premium is fair. If someone wants fibre access to the internet at average cost while living somewhere with a density of 1 person/sq mile then that's too bad. The question in this case is whether the school bus system is one of these cases.

If as antoin implies this is a backdoor subsidy for BE then it should be abolished and devolved to the VECs or other suitable regional authorities - in this way the scheme will be more transparent and regional anomalies and special needs more identifiable.

Zoney

downlingm:

Choices? You mean like a Clareman remaining in County Clare, or a Mayoman in Mayo. What a ridiculous proposition it is that they should all move (and as I pointed out, a great many are anyway)!

You could just as easily argue that people choosing to live in Greater Dublin are doing everyone else a disservice as we all collectively have to stump up for improvements in infrastructure there.

I think people have this mistaken idea that people out the countryside are just folk who moved out there to live in McMansions, or else are living in commuter towns/villages to be near a city but not in it. Surprisingly enough, lots of people are in the countryside because that is where they have always lived!

I'll certainly agree that planning should have been better all over the country to try and arrange more sustainable centres of population, but it's not like you can magically fix that simply by pointing out the problem. You still have to provide services to everyone - that indeed is why we should have had good planning.

KC61

What no one seems to have noticed is that these fares have remained constant for 10 years from 1998 to 2007 and presumably they rose in 2007 and 2008. One can only suspect that they have been at very artificially low levels.

Zoney

Tell me, anyone who hasn't received a pay increase in recent years, are they getting one now even if they are "due" one?

There are even some public sector employees who are quite behind others in that regard, and I wouldn't expect them to succeed in getting any more pay.

It surely isn't yet a foregone conclusion with the electricians either.

People if they are still employed, may well be on less pay. Surely the sensible thing is at the very least to *freeze* any direct charges for government services. Not increase them by truckloads.

crocro

Zoney wrote: »

So what do you propose? Forcibly depopulating most of the country?

I accept that there is not much we can do about all the people who have moved out to the countryside while working in towns and cities. We should change our policies for the future to stop encouraging the process of ruralisation.

Zoney wrote:

As it is half the country has emigrated to Dublin - and a lot of good that's done the city.

I think the opposite has happened. Dublin has a lower proportion of the state's population than it did in 1991 (see below).

The problem with ruralisation is that the provision of state services is nearly always more expensive the further that people live apart from each other.

CSO stats showing population growth from 1991-2006

Area	% increase 1991-2006
State	20%
Leinster	23%
Carlow	22%
Dublin	16%
Dublin, Co Borough	6%
Dublin, DL - Rathdown	5%
Dublin, Fingal	58%
South Dublin	19%
Kildare	52%
Kilkenny	19%
Laoighis	28%
Longford	13%
Louth	23%
Meath	55%
Offaly	21%
Westmeath	27%
Wexford	29%
Wicklow	30%
Munster	16%
Clare	21%
Cork	17%
Cork, Co Borough	-6%
Cork, County	28%
Kerry	14%
Limerick	13%
Limerick, Co Borough	0%
Limerick, County	19%
Tipperary	12%
Tipperary NR	13%
Tipperary SR	11%
Waterford	17%
Waterford, Co Borough	12%
Waterford, County	21%
Connacht	18%
Galway	28%
Galway, Co Borough	41%
Galway, County	22%
Leitrim	13%
Mayo	11%
Roscommon	13%
Sligo	10%
Ulster (pt)	15%
Cavan	21%
Donegal	14%
Monaghan	10%