Parents from Gort in Galway who are battling with the Department of Education to provide transport for their daughters to an all-girls' secondary school in nearby Kinvara have brought their complaint to the Ombudsman.
The Parents' Group for School Transport to Seamount College, Kinvara, have also written letters of protest to the Taoiseach, calling for an end to what they describe as "a ridiculous and unjust situation".
The letters of protest from the parents of 40 girls, who live in the Gort area and attend Seamount College, states: "While girls living in the Kinvara catchment area can avail of a convenient and Department of Education and Science subsidised transport service to Gort Community School, I as a tax-payer also must bear the cost and inconvenience of transporting my daughter to Seamount College by private car or on a private bus."
Gort Community School, which opened in the mid-1990s, has a catchment area for boys and girls, while Seamount College has a catchment area for girls. Under the Transport Scheme 1991, boys could travel to Gort from within both catchment areas, but girls from the Kinvara catchment area could not travel to Gort. Neither could girls from the Gort catchment area travel to Kinvara.
In 1998, girls from the Kinvara catchment area who had sought transport to Gort Community School were given tickets to travel to Gort but when Seamount College protested about this breach of the Transport Scheme, the Department withdrew the tickets.
The junior education minister of the day, Mr Willie O'Dea, intervened and issued "temporary" tickets to the students. This situation continues, while parents in the Gort catchment area of girls attending Seamount College must pay up to £700 a year for private bus transport.
The chairman of the parents' group, Mr Robert Coen, explained that the bus to Seamount College cannot pass through Labane because Labane is in the Gort catchment area. As a result, the driver has to reverse a large bus up a narrow lane.
The group has complained to the Ombudsman, and Mr Coen is hopeful that this will result in some positive action for the case, but it is feared that any such action could be slow.
Mr Coen said: "We can't understand why the Minister is continuing to hold the line on this. Whether he has something against all-girls' schools or wants to close small schools, his position is totally unreasonable. A colleague of mine from Kinvara who lives halfway between both schools is entitled to school subsidised transport either way, whereas I live in Gort and am not entitled to it."
In his second Dáil question on the issue, Mr Ulick Burke TD asked the Minister, Dr Woods, if he would make a decision on providing a school bus service to Seamount College and make a statement on the matter.
Dr Woods said he had again had the request examined in his Department for the provision of the school transport.
Having considered the matter, he had decided that the current arrangements should continue for now but if the management authorities of both schools were agreeable, he would introduce a shared catchment area.
He pointed out that the management of Seamount College was prepared to participate in a shared catchment area, but the management of Gort Community School was opposed to any change. If agreement could be reached between the management authorities of both schools on a shared catchment area, he would provide transport to both schools under the normal condition of the scheme.
Mr Burke said the Minister should not allow one board of management veto another on the issue of school transport, and that the Department should not discriminate against girls who wished to attend Seamount College while allowing pupils from Kinvara to travel to Gort.
Last November, Dr Woods said he would make another request of the management board of Gort School to consider the matter further, but the transport dilemma is still ongoing.
