{"id":12763,"date":"2025-06-18T12:04:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=12763"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:04:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:04:21","slug":"government-must-expand-eligibility-for-school-transport-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/government-must-expand-eligibility-for-school-transport-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Government must expand eligibility for School Transport Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government must urgently expand eligibility for the School Transport Scheme to help Ireland achieve its climate action targets, reduce congestion on our roads, and tackle education disadvantage, according to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Cummins, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on education, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith just 18 per cent of primary and post-primary pupils currently accessing the School Transport Scheme, the Climate Change Advisory Council has come out in support of expanded eligibility criteria and greater integration of school and public transport services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven that transport is the biggest source of energy demand \u2013 and almost one in five cars on the road in the morning are on the school run \u2013 this makes complete sense from an environmental perspective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving to drive to school also puts financial pressure on households, with parents forking out an average of \u20ac400 a year in fuel and wear and tear costs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs part of our policy to make education in Ireland truly free, the Social Democrats have been calling for a comprehensive School Transport Scheme to be rolled out across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only would this help us meet our legally binding climate action targets, it would play a part in tackling educational disadvantage and bring down school costs for families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>June 18, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government must urgently expand eligibility for the School Transport Scheme to help Ireland achieve its climate action targets, reduce congestion on our roads, and tackle education disadvantage, according to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins. Deputy Cummins, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on education, said: \u201cWith just 18 per cent of primary and post-primary pupils [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[405,218,581,7,547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-education","category-jen-cummins","category-press-release","category-transport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government must expand eligibility for School Transport Scheme - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-expand-eligibility-for-school-transport-scheme\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government must expand eligibility for School Transport Scheme - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government must urgently expand eligibility for the School Transport Scheme to help Ireland achieve its climate action targets, reduce congestion on our roads, and tackle education disadvantage, according to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins. 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