Parents protest in County Waterford as no school buses for children

Ninety protestors gathered in Ardmore this weekend to call on government to take urgent action to address school transport for secondary school students as the beginning of the school year fast approaches.

There is currently no school transport scheme for students attending secondary school in Dungarvan.

At present the only option for children is to meet a bus on the busy N25 road. This solution presented as a compromise by the Department was branded a "cop out not a compromise" by parents.

Parents said that the N25 between Youghal and Dungarvan is a notoriously dangerous stretch of road and indeed there was a serious road traffic accident there while the protest was taking place.

Supporting the protest were local councillors Tom Cronin and Conor McGuinness.

Cllr Cronin urged residents of Ardmore to contact the Dept of Transport and local Green TD Marc O’Cathasaigh, however, Cllr McGuiness was adamant that this was a Department of Education matter and that Cllr Cronin should contact his party colleague Minister for Education Norma Foley TD to resolve the issue.

Parents have made representations to the Dept of Education, Local Link and local political representatives but there is still no solution in place.

Holding his homemade sign at the event, 13-year-old Tom Howard said: "We are all worried about what is going to happen next week and don’t know how we will get to school."