Children were left on the side of the road on the first day back at school this week as the ‘free bus fiasco’ came to a head.

In one such instance, buses passed-by a stop in Ballyglunin on Wednesday morning where children were waiting to be brought to Presentation College Athenry.

There were also reports of issues with transport and bus tickets for children from Abbeyknockmoy and elsewhere, attending schools in Claregalway and Mountbellew.

It’s all because Government removed the €350 charge for secondary school transport to help parents with back-to-school cost inflation – and that led to a surge in demand, but sufficient bus capacity wasn’t added.

Warnings that it would result in children stranded without transport to school materialised this week.

Sinead Shanley, a mother in Ballyglunin, said her older two children were among a group of five pupils who were left on the side of the road.

“Three buses passed-by this morning and kept going, didn’t stop at all. Bus drivers have changed over the years, but we’ve never had a drive-by where the kids have been left on the side of the road. We can’t make sense of it,” said Ms Shanley.

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