Irish School Bus Fees to rise by 79%!!!

Bus Éireann, our inefficient and state-owned national bus company, has announced an increase of their school bus fares by a staggering 79% (!!!) from the start of the new school year. This is another outrage in a long list of scandals involving public transport in this country.

Until June the annual fee for secondary school pupils who use the official school bus service was € 168 a year, which is already more than enough, since the scheme is supported by the Department of Education. The new rate will now be € 300 (!!!) per school year, which is indeed and rise of 79% (!!!) in one step. And this comes during the worst recession the country has ever experienced in its 90-year history under various forms of self-rule (since 1919).

What might be the justification for such an enormous increase? There is none.

But the scandalous decision shows once more that the incompetent and overpaid management of Bus Éireann lives on an entirely different planet, a place I call 'Planet Greed'.
I think they need their mental capacity examined by a good psychiatrist!

And who made the decision? Surely the relevant ministers - Batt O'Keeffe (Education - left) and Noel Dempsey (Transport - below right) - must have been involved in a step of such magnitude.

Both ministers are not seen as competent and effective leaders of their departments, and this is only another example how the Irish state robs and rips-off its citizens in the most shameless and scandalous way wherever and whenever possible.

Parents affected by this official highway robbery should protest immediately and - if the rise is not cancelled - they should boycott the scheme and keep their children at home.

When one is faced with a completely incompetent but immensely greedy government that clings to power at all costs in times of severe economic depression and serious financial crisis, the only way to achieve some change is people power. If we don't use it, we will be robbed ever more, while the country as a whole goes to the dogs.

The Emerald Islander