{"id":13322,"date":"2025-08-25T14:20:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/department-of-education-not-fit-to-oversee-school-transport-scheme\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:20:48","slug":"department-of-education-not-fit-to-oversee-school-transport-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/department-of-education-not-fit-to-oversee-school-transport-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Education not fit to oversee School Transport Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Government responsibility for the School Transport Scheme should be transferred out of the Department of Education and put under the remit of the Department of Transport, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on transport, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe start of the new term has yet again been marked by significant gaps in the School Transport Scheme, which is operated by Bus \u00c9ireann on behalf of the Department of Education. This has resulted in last-minute notifications to parents informing them that some services are not yet in place for their child\u2019s route \u2013 even though these families met the eligibility criteria and had already received their tickets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile it is still not known how widespread this problem is, we have received reports of parents in Leitrim, Meath, Kildare, Tipperary and my own constituency of Wicklow being left in the lurch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs in previous years, Bus \u00c9ireann has again blamed a shortage of drivers and contractors for the current difficulties being experienced. However, given that these recurring problems should have been anticipated, is it extraordinary that no contingency plans were put in place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have now lost all faith in the Department of Education\u2019s ability to effectively manage the School Transport Scheme, which has turned into an annual fiasco. As a starting point, responsibility for the scheme should now be placed under the remit of the Department of Transport, with a full review commenced into the issues that continue to plague this essential service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>August 25, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government responsibility for the School Transport Scheme should be transferred out of the Department of Education and put under the remit of the Department of Transport, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on transport, said: \u201cThe start of the new term has yet again been marked by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[540,218,268,7,547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-education","category-jennifer-whitmore","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>Department of Education not fit to oversee 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\/ga\/department-of-education-not-fit-to-oversee-school-transport-scheme\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Department of Education not fit to oversee School Transport Scheme - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Government responsibility for the School Transport Scheme should be transferred out of the Department of Education and put under the remit of the Department of Transport, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore. 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