A Tipperary Father has appealed for his son to be included in a school bus transport scheme.
The Ryan family is currently being forced to endure a twice daily commute from Thurles to Nenagh, to ensure their son gets the educational support he needs.
Bobby Ryan from Thurles is five-years-old and has issues with speech and language.
His family are living in Thurles, but Bobby must attend St Mary’s Boy’s School in Nenagh in order to meet his additional needs.
A school bus specifically for children at St Marys with speech and language difficulties has been running for some time.
During the summer, the Ryan family applied for a place on this bus and were informed that there would be a delay in securing Bobby a place on the bus, but that the issue should be rectified within the first 2 weeks of school.
The Ryan family is still waiting.
Bobby’s Dad Patrick spoke to Fran on Tipp Today.
“This service is there, it’s not as if it’s being made up. There’s people around Thurles that have kids that went there and they’ve had their child picked up from their door and dropped off every single day.
“We don’t know if it’s stopped or if there’s a problem, we’re hearing nothing back.
“This is one boy, a five-year-old boy that should be on a bus that isn’t on a bus.”
In correspondence to the Ryan family, they were told that the delay was down to funding not yet being approved to include Thurles in the current bus route.
Following on from his Tipp Today interview, Tipperary TD’s Martin Browne and Jackie Cahill have promised to try to resolve the matter.
