The Minister for Education has been told families in Roscommon and East Galway are in despair due to a lack of school transport.
The issue was raised in the Seanad this week by Ballinasloe based senator Aisling Dolan.
Minister Norma Foley was told that families in Kilconnell, Ballyforan and Dysart say there is no other transport options for children to get to school apart from buses.
The Fine Gael representative highlighted 8,000 applications for tickets were not granted and it has left several families facing a difficult winter in how to get their children to school.
She says the government must address the issue immediately.
'In areas of East Galway and Roscommon around Ahascragh, Kilconnell, Ballyforan and Dysart we don't have a myriad of transport options
There's no LUAS running through these downs , or train lines, I've been at public meetings in Ballygar and Mountbellew, and parents are in despair.
It is a lifeline.
If we take those 8,00 travel tickets, average journey 10 kilometres, and two return journeys, that's 40 kilometres in total per day, we could take 320,000 kilometres per day of individual family journeys off country roads.'
