PARENTS in Donegal have been reminded that the closing days for Primary and/or Post Primary School Transport payments is looming.
The 2021/22 payments are now open and the closing date is July 30.
“As we are approaching a very busy few weeks for Bus Éireann’s school transport offices payments must be made before 30th July,” Donegal County Councillor Patrick McFowan said.
“School transport is a significant scheme operated by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education, providing transport for over 114,500 children to and from school on a daily basis, and we know how important the service is to families and schools throughout the country.”
Bus Eireann has issued the following advice
Deadline for receipt of payments
Anyone who applied for Primary and/or Post Primary School Transport, that the closing date for payments is Friday, 30 July 2021. Regular email communication in relation to payments will be sent directly to registered families, but parents are strongly urged to make sure that payment is made on or before this deadline date. Any application or payment received after this date is deemed late and may mean no seat will be available.
A radio and press advertising campaign is underway to highlight the payment deadline.
To allow for planning of school transport services for the new school year, that are aligned to public health advice, the Family Portal will close after the payment deadline and will not re-open until 20 August 2021. It will not be possible to submit an application or payment for Primary/Post Primary transport for the new school year during this period.
HSE Medical Card validation process
Unfortunately, the medical card verification system used as payment for school transport tickets is currently unavailable due to the cyberattack on the HSE systems.
While this issue is outside of our control, we are working with the HSE to find a resolution as soon as possible.
Bus Éireann is communicating directly with existing medical card holders in relation to processing their applications, and we have rolled forward their child’s medical card details used successfully for payment last year as payment for their 21/22 school transport ticket, where their child continues to be eligible for transport. For a large number of parents, they will have nothing further to do. Regular updates will be provided for all customers on our website www.buseireann.ie/schooltransport
We do apologise for any inconvenience this may cause at this time.
School transport refunds
Finally, I wanted to let you know that we have started to process the school transport refunds for the school closure period from 6 January to 26 March 2021.
More than 42,000 families who paid fees for school transport relating to the 2020/21 school year are set to receive refunds from Bus Éireann, on behalf of the Department of Education. This system worked well last year. If any of your constituents have queries, please advise them that they should direct them to Covid19Refunds@buseireann.ie and there is detailed information on buseireann.ie.
We continue to plan for the new school year amidst the uncertainties and challenges associated with the ongoing pandemic.
Tickets for School Transport services will be issued in the coming weeks. Parents will receive a notification by email when this happens, or they can check their online account for updates.
We are looking forward to recommencing school transport services from Thursday, 26 August 2021 and will of course continue to operate in line with public health advice.