Opposition parties have warned of a potential school transport crisis if the Minister for Education fails to ensure all secondary school students are guaranteed a seat on buses in the new school term.
The Department of Education has said pupils attending schools outside their catchment areas may not be guaranteed seats on school buses following its decision to end the "three-for-two" seating arrangement.
School buses will no longer seat three pupils in two seats following a school bus crash in which five girls were killed near Navan, Co Meath.
The new system will not be introduced for primary school pupils for some time.
Fine Gael spokeswoman on education Olwyn Enright asked Minister Mary Hanafin to explain why her representatives were waiting until the middle of next week to hold talks with schools on the issue.
"With many child due to return to school next week, unaware of how they are going to be able to get there, the school bus debacle is manifesting into a crisis situation," she said.
"Yesterday's initial talks have to be welcomed but they shouldn't have needed to take place in the first place. It has to be asked what provisions, if any, has Minister Hanafin put in place, with a week to go, to ensure that all school children, concessionary or not, will have a seat on a school bus."
"I have written to the chairman of the Oireachtas Education Committee to have this matter discussed at the earliest possible date," she said.
Green Party Education spokesman Paul Gogarty also called on Ms Hanafin to clarify what action she will take to ensure that students who attend schools outside their bus catchment areas can continue to avail of the system.
He called for a nationwide review of catchment areas and boundaries.
"There is major tension brewing over this whole issue. Many parents have already paid for bus tickets and now do not know if their children will be carried on the bus," he said.
Mr Gogarty also called for a detailed debate on the Department's proposals to introduce lap belts into school buses.
He said they had the potential to cause stomach and head injuries in children who would not have been injured at all if they weren't restrained.