Waterford mother told her email address is why school bus ticket application wasn't processed

A Waterford mother living in Villierstown says she has no way of getting her three children to school.

Aoife O'Brien told Déise Today that she is very familiar with the procedure for applying for bus tickets, having done so successfully for the past six years.

Emails bounced back

She submitted her application for the school bus tickets back in February but only received notice last week that she has to reapply.

"I rang bus Éireann and said I was wondering where my tickets were," Aoife explained to Damien Tiernan, "so the girls told me that I was to complete the second part of the application.

"I never received an email from them at that stage.

"Eventually, last week, I got through after an hour-and-a-half on the phone, to be told that the problem was that I was using Yahoo as my email and that the emails were being bounced back, there were not being delivered to Yahoo users.

"They said you have to wait until the portal opens up again and reapply.

"So, at the moment, I have contacted Bus Éireann but I have no bus ticket because I have now gone on as a late applicant."

As reported yesterday, in the region of 44,000 first-time applications were received nationally this year for the Bus Éireann School Bus Scheme after the government scrapped the fees.

Despite this, the capacity was not increased and parents all over the country have reported not being able to get their child a place on a school bus.