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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Denis Hynes, Minister John Halligan TD, Brendan Howlin TD and Jimmy Drennan
School bus transport issues in Kilkenny have been raised with Minister John Halligan.
Denis Hynes, the Labour general election candidate, met last week with John Halligan TD, the Minister responsible for school transport, and raised the concerns of parents about the ongoing local issue.
“I was approached by many parents of children travelling on the school bus from the Royal Oak, Bagenalstown through Paulstown, Gowran, and Clara on into the secondary schools in Kilkenny City.
“Five families (seven children) found out in August that they would not get a seat on the bus for the coming school year. Some of these children were entering leaving cert year and had been on the bus for the previous five years.
“To have a local parent, Jimmy Drennan, attend the meeting was important to allow the Minister to understand the hardship the situation is having on families.”
“We are lead to understand that the decision to restrict access to seats on school buses was made even though there has been a significant increase in students in the national schools in the local areas. It is reasonable to assume that no proper analysis was done of the community by the Department of Education because if they had done, they couldn’t possibly justify their decisions to date” commented Mr Hynes.
Mr Hynes organised the meeting with Minister John Halligan, to discuss the concerns of the parents and to seek a resolution to the problem. The meeting took place in Dáil Éireann last Thursday, and present also was Jimmy Drennan (local parent) and Labour leader Brendan Howlin TD.
Denis said “I made the Minister aware of the growth in population in the student's respective areas and student number increases in the primary schools, and also the commitments that were made by the former Minister of Education, Mr Noel Dempsey in 2005 when he closed the secondary school in Goresbridge, that school transport would be available for students in the catchment area to get them to Kilkenny if they so wished.”
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