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Ulster says níl on school bus
10.02.10
by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent
SCHOOLCHILDREN from Derry attending Coláiste Chineál
Eoghain, Buncrana’s Irish-medium secondary school,
have been forced to hire taxis to get to school.
While the authorities in the Republic are willing to
provide school transport for six Derry-based
students from Bridgend to Buncrana, the Northern
authorities have refused to transport the children
from as far as the Border.
The children are picked up by taxi in the morning
and brought to Bridgend where they then board a
Lough Swilly service bus that leaves the Foyle
Street depot in the city.
In the evening, they take a Lough Swilly service bus
from Buncrana and disembark in Bridgend where a taxi
waits to ferry them home while the bus continues on
into the city.
Senator Cecilia Keaveney raised the issue with
Catriona Ruane, the Northern Ireland Minister for
Education, at a Good Friday Agreement Implementation
committee meeting in Leinster House last week. |
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“Minister Ruane agreed
with me that there was a huge need for planning for
mobility,” Senator Keaveney said. “Not to have
transport from Derry to Buncrana's Gaelcholáiste is
a tangible obstacle to mobility.
“It is simply not good enough that children in Derry
are told they cannot have a bus to the Border,”
Ruane told the meeting, adding that it was a two way
street that also discriminates against members of
the Unionist and Protestant tradition in the
Republic who wish to attend school in the North.
“Surely in this day and age our Department can do
something about that. It is one of the first issues
I raised with our new permanent secretary and we
will be dealing with it.”
Catriona Ruane’s Department of Education was
unavailable for comment when contacted yesterday to
expand on her remarks.
Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh hit out at Ruane’s inaction
on the issue. “Minister Ruane is denying Derry City
students this very short bus service, and has told
Derry parents that she will provide a bus service to
an alternative Gael Choláiste in Belfast every day,”
he said. “This is ridiculous and is very
partitionist – Minister Ruane is asking Derry
children to undertake a three-hour round trip to
Belfast every day, even though there is an excellent
Gaelcholáiste in nearby Buncrana.”
However, Sinn Féin town councillor Daren Lalor, a
founding member of the Gaelcholáiste, hit out at
McHugh’s comments.
“Like all members, parents and students are
frustrated at the legal difficulties that prevent
students from Derry availing of a bus service to
their nearest Irish medium secondary school here in
Buncrana,” he said, adding that the Fine Gael TD was
making cheap political points. “Joe McHugh is fully
aware that under the existing legal framework of the
[North’s] Education and Libraries board to provide
any form of transport or transport assistance, in
these circumstances either for the whole or part of
the journey will require an amendment by primary
legislation.” |
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