School Transport Services / Tickets

Bus Éireann Payment Portal is now open. Payment Deadline Date for 2021/22 School Year is 30 July 2021

Deadline date for payment / submitting medical card details for the 2021/22 school year is Friday, 30 July 2021.

To allow for planning of school transport services for the new school year, that are aligned to public health advice, the Family Portal will close after the payment deadline and will not re-open until 20 August 2021.  It will not be possible to submit an application or payment for Primary/Post Primary transport for the new school year during this period.

You may still may make a payment following this date, but you cannot be guaranteed a seat, according to Bus Éireann.

Important Message to Medical Card Holders

Department of Education states: Unfortunately, the medical card verification system used as payment for school transport tickets is currently unavailable due to the cyberattack on the HSE systems.  While this issue is outside of our control, we are working with the HSE to find a resolution as soon as possible. Bus Éireann is communicating directly with existing medical card holders in relation to processing their applications, and we have rolled forward their child’s medical card details used successfully for payment last year as payment for their 21/22 school transport ticket, where their child continues to be eligible for transport. For a large number of parents, they will have nothing further to do.

Information note relating to refunds for the unused portion of tickets following closure of schools arising from public health measures relating to Covid-19 restrictions.

Bus Éireann has commenced issuing refunds to families who are due to receive a refund for the unused portion of their ticket for the period of school closures arising from public health measures/Covid-19 restrictions in the 2020/2021 school year. Bus Éireann is managing this refund process on behalf of the Department of Education.

More than 42,000 families who paid fees for school transport relating to the 2020/21 school year are set to receive refunds. Queries should be emailed to Covid19Refunds@buseireann.ie.

Full information is available at https://www.buseireann.ie/SchoolRefunds

School Transport On-Line Application / Tickets

To use School Transport Scheme Services, pupils must be in possession of a valid ticket for travel.

School Transport Applications 2021/2022

Bus Éireann’s on-line application system for school transport is now open for the 2021/22 school year.

The closing date for School Transport Applications is Friday, 30 April, 2021.

How to Apply

Apply on-line now @ www.buseireann.ie\schooltransport

Submitting Statement of Attendance Form during the current Covid-19 Period of Restrictions

Important Information regarding school administration issues during the current public health emergency

Schools administration during the current public health emergency

Related Links:

McNamara seeks improved ventilation in schools as Tanaiste suggests antigen tests being considered

The Taoiseach says the Government is considering the introduction of antigen testing to primary and secondary school settings in the autumn.

Leo Varadkar was responding today to a Dáil question by Clare Independent TD Michael McNamara who asked if ventilation would be improved in school buildings over the summer holidays to reduce the spread of Covid in classrooms and to negate the need for classroom windows to be kept open during the autumn and winter months.

Questioning the Tánaiste, Deputy McNamara asked, “Over the course of the summer are we going to introduce ventilation works to schools or are we going to have children returning to schools wearing coats and wearing masks in poorly ventilated buildings and freezing in the middle of an Irish winter with the windows open?”

Deputy McNamara also raised the potential for using stand-alone HEPA (high-efficiency particulate absorbing) filter devices in classroom.

He added that an Expert Group on the Role of Ventilation in Reducing Transmission of COVID-19, set up by the Department of Health, said such devices “maybe useful in reducing airborne transmission in spaces with insufficient ventilation.”

In response, Leo Varadkar said the matter is under consideration by Government.

“We accept that schools will need better ventilation in September and October and the issue of CO2 monitors is part of that,” stated the Tánaiste.

He continued, “We have asked the Expert Group on Antigen Testing to advise us on applying antigen testing both to indoor hospitality and to schools when they reopen in September.”

Fair price for produce

We need to ensure that Irish farmers are adequately protected for producing an environmentally sustainable product and that they are not expected to sell that product below the cost of producing it. I questioned the Beef Taskforce Chair and Dept of Agriculture on the issue today.

Clare FM – Transfer of Shannon Heritage sites to Council

Speaking on Clare FM I said important details still need to be ironed out in relation to the proposed transfer of Shannon Heritage sites to Clare County Council.

Calls are being made for a government commitment to short-term funding for the sites and for the council to stipulate that future coach contracts to tourist attraction would require an overnight stay in the county.

School Transport Refunds To Be Issued From Today

Clare Independent T.D. Michael McNamara has received confirmation from the Department of Education that school transport refunds will be issued on a staged basis over the next six weeks.

Responding to a Parliamentary Question by Deputy McNamara on the matter, Minister Norma Foley confirmed that Bus Éireann will from today (30 June) commence issuing refunds to families who are due to receive a refund for the unused portion of their ticket for the period of school closures arising from public health measures/Covid-19 restrictions in the 2020/2021 school year.

Deputy McNamara, who first raised the issue of refunds with Minister Foley in Dáil Éireann on 3rd March has welcomed the news.

“This is the correct decision by the Department of Education as thousands of parents will have paid in advance for transport to schools which were shut through no fault of their own or the Minister,” he stated.

Deputy McNamara added, “The refund due for each primary school student is €31, with the figure rising to €108.50 per post primary school student. From today, families will receive an email from Bus Éireann if they are eligible for a refund. The refund will be automatically made to the bank card used to make the payment, or by cheque if a card wasn’t used. Bus Éireann says refunds will be issued to all entitled family account holders starting from 30th June until mid-August.”

In response to Deputy McNamara’s Parliamentary Question, Minister Foley confirmed, “School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 114,100 children, including over 14,700 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €224.7m in 2020.”

Further information is available from the Bus Éireann website at https://www.buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=710.

Rising construction costs and social housing income thresholds

In Dáil Éireann today, Clare Independent T.D. Michael McNamara called on Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien to change the income limits for eligibility for social housing to enable working families to apply in circumstances where obtaining a mortgage is beyond their reach.

During Priority Questions to the Minister, Deputy McNamara also highlighted the growing cost of construction materials and its subsequent impact on house building across County Clare.

Speaking on the issue of social housing, Deputy McNamara said the current assessment of housing applicants was overly restrictive.

“As the threshold is currently set in Clare, if two people in a household are working or even if just one person is working and is just a little over the minimum wage, those people are not entitled to go on the social housing list,” he explained. “Effectively, only people in receipt of social welfare can get social housing in Clare because of where the limits are set I have no problem with people in receipt of social welfare getting social housing but it should not be limited to that because it will cause ghettoisation of social housing, which nobody thinks is a good thing, and there is a disincentive to work, especially when it is low-paid work.”

“We need to look at those income thresholds for the sake of society and housing in Clare, to even get back to where we were in the 1980s,” Deputy McNamara informed the Dáil.

Meanwhile, Deputy McNamara also asked if the Department has consulted the construction sector regarding the growing impact on housing construction on the shortage and inflating cost of timber.

“House building is becoming increasingly expensive. There is huge material inflation, especially, but not just, in timber. This affects one-off builds, but it also affects the capacity of local authorities to deliver houses,” stated Deputy McNamara.

He added, “Small one-off builders and self-builders are important to the supply of housing in Ireland, particularly in rural areas. Accessing materials is increasingly difficult as the supply is drying up. A simple length of 4″ X 2″ was €8 last year and is now €13. One of the main builder’s suppliers in Clare is no longer stocking timber. Builders will not give quotes of more than a month’s duration because of inflation in the cost of supplies. I refer not just to timber, but to materials generally?”

“There is a lot of timber growing in Ireland and much of that is past the point of maturity. Many landowners across Clare are looking for felling licences. There is chaos in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, particularly in its forestry section. I would ask the Minister of State to speak with Senator Hackett, who is the Minister of State with responsibility for this, and tell her to get things moving,” stated Deputy McNamara.

Responding to Deputy McNamara about the rising cost of building materials, Minister O’Brien said, “There have been material increases in timber, plastics and metals, some of it Covid-related and some of it Suez-related and supply chain-related. This is being monitored by the Department’s market surveillance unit. The increases we are seeing could be temporary, but we are monitoring the situation. The Deputy asked if this has an effect on delivery. There is no question that it does.”

NPHET and Rapid Antigen Testing

NPHET’s confirmation that it hasn’t even discussed the Government-commissioned Report of the Covid Rapid Testing Group and its reluctance to accept the EU Commission’s common list of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests demonstrate an intent to maintain Ireland’s outlier position on international travel and antigen testing compared to other EU states.

McNamara critical of Government’s Mandatory Hotel Quarantine strategy

Clare Independent T.D. Michael McNamara has criticised the Government’s Mandatory Hotel Quarantine strategy, which he described as “a half-baked exercise in optics” and a “flawed measure” in the context of an unchecked border with Northern Ireland and when the majority of persons arriving in the state whether by air, sea or over land are not tested for variants of Covid-19.

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Vaccination Programme

Given that vaccine demand greatly exceeds current supply I questioned why the Government is prioritising people who, according to HIQA, the US CDC and scientists across the world, have an immunity from infection arising from having contracted and recovered from Covid (which can be verified with an antibody test).