School Transport Help please

TextureLikeSun

Can anyone help me out here? Long story short-moved rurally recently ,daughter to attend secondary school in town,was told by both primary(in rural village) and secondary schools that i need to apply to bus eireann to sort transport(no other info just that )

Fast forward to July ,getting things sorted for back to school, i ring bus eireann and told sorry there was a closing date but we are still accepting application forms.

Fill out the form online right away and they send me out a letter today to say sorry no place for your child.

Im now stuck in a rural location-i dont drive, my husband works and there is no other person going that way ? I tried to ring and explain to my local office and was told by an extremely rude woman that basically tough!

Of course if i had been told that there was a closing date i would have applied months ago (we didnt even know that she had gotten a place in this school till April anyway!) ,but coming from a urban area previously i didnt have a clue

Are Bus Eireann legally obliged to provide a bus place ?

Any advice would be appreciated as we are up in a heap here

January

I doubt they're legally obliged to offer a place. They can't over crowd bus's.

I'd ring the school and see if there are any private companies contracted to the school.

GCU Flexible Demeanour

I don't know if the link below is of any help. There's links from it to the Department of Education material on the scheme. The short answer seems to be that there's no legal entitlement, but there is an appeals mechanism.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/primary_and_post_primary_education/going_to_post_primary_school/school_transport.html

Failing that, I'd say finding out if there's a private bus is probably your next option. Failing that, it's probably the expense of hiring a taxi/hackney if cycling just isn't an option (which I assume its not.)

If you look at the material linked to the page above, there seems to be some provision for a cash grant.

An eligible child for whom no transport service is available may, following an application for transport within prescribed time limits, receive a Remote Area Grant (RAG) towards the cost of private transport arrangements. The RAG is also payable for eligible children who may have to travel 3.2 kms or more to or from a designated pick up/set down point.

TextureLikeSun

Thank you both for the answers!Will report back

Hesh's Umpire

The scheme is non statutory so there is no legal entitlement to transport.
The grant is paid if you are eligible but not provided with a service.