About 6,000 tickets have so far been issued to students attending schools outside their local catchment area, new figures provided by Bus Éireann have revealed.
While many parents around the country are still unsure whether their children will obtain school bus places this year, the figures indicate that a significant percentage of these students are now being catered for.
The tickets have been issued mainly to existing catchment boundary students, as well as some new first year students.
It remains to be seen how many of the remaining catchment boundary students - in particular first year students - will be allocated places on a school bus this year. A Bus Éireann spokeswoman yesterday said some 7,800 new and existing catchment boundary students received tickets last year.
If a similar figure applied this year, this could mean some 1,800 new and existing students still do not have school bus places. Some of the delays in issuing tickets are understood to be the result of late applications for places and the payment of the accompanying fees.
The Bus Éireann spokeswoman said it would expect to cater to all of the remaining existing catchment boundary students - and a "good proportion" of new catchment boundary students. Under the phasing out of the so-called "three for two" seating arrangements on school buses, many catchment boundary students have faced the prospect of losing their school bus seats, which are only allocated to them once eligible students are catered for.
In a separate development, Fine Gael Senator Fergal Browne yesterday claimed that some children who have not received their school bus tickets, but who have already paid for them, will be turned away by inspectors from next Monday.
"Parents in Carlow and further afield have been told that if they cannot produce bus tickets on Monday, their child will not be allowed on a school bus," he said. "None of those children should be forced off school buses as a result of an error by the Department of Education."
Bus Éireann last night confirmed that for insurance purposes pupils who have not received tickets cannot board school buses.
Parents throughout Sligo and north Leitrim will be forced to make alternative travel arrangements for school children again today as close to 50 school buses are kept off the road by private operators in dispute with Bus Éireann over pay. Forty schools in the region were affected yesterday.
In a serious escalation of their protest, 24 operators withdrew just under 50 buses from service as the majority of schools reopened after the summer break.
The bus operators, who decided to escalate the protest at a meeting in Sligo on Wednesday night, say they will not be providing a bus service today although they will return to work "under protest" from Monday.
However with the operators demanding a 15 per cent pay increase which the company has described as "excessive", the service will be under threat again next week.
Bus operators in the affected area are to meet again next Wednesday when a decision will be made on whether to resume the action.
A spokeswoman for Bus Éireann said 24 out of 57 operators were involved in the protest which continues today.