*Cian Pyne at home in Ennis. Photograph: Tom Micks
ADDITIONAL COSTS, unreliable public transport and being left out of the social experience are some of the feelings experienced by Clare third-level students forced to travel hours each day to college due to shortage of accommodation.
Shortage of accommodation and high costs for each semester is forcing many third-level students from Clare to commute daily to institutes such as the University of Limerick, University of Galway, Mary Immaculate College and TUS.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office from 2022 indicate that 201,200 students are travelling to college daily with the bus being the most popular form of transportation, followed by the car.
Daily commutes to college is taking its toll on Clare students. Jack Finucane, aged 20, is studying computer science at UL and says that commuting causes him to miss out on a lot. “You can’t join societies or anything like that because all their events are on late at night and I don’t want to be hanging around for hours after my lectures”.
Engineering student, Cian Pyne aged twenty admitted he was unable to pursue swimming and basketball in college due to the same reasons. “A lot of stuff isn’t on until nine o’clock at night so it’s definitely not convenient”. He says he found the commuting especially hard in first year. “It was a lot harder in first year like it was tough going there for a while now”.
The social side of college life also suffers Jack says, “Even on nights out, I have to stay over with friends, which is less convenient obviously”, adds the Clarecastle native. As a result, students can feel like they are missing out on a core part of the college experience. Annual events such as the student races or charity week can become hard to facilitate and leave students feeling left out.
The actual cost of travelling each day is another impact on the lives of commuter students, especially those who drive. Jack says that he spends “At least €60 on diesel and €4.60 a day on the toll both ways”, costs which can easily pile up by the end of the semester as he travels to and from his home in Clarecastle. “The money is definitely the worst part of it. The cost of driving is bad enough but sometimes you go into college as there’s nowhere to park so you’ve to pay again to get into the car park”.
Ennis native Cian also mentions the cost, saying “At the moment I use a combination of car-pooling and the bus so it’s about €20 or €21 a week”. He said the unreliability of public transport is another frustration. “Early in the morning it’s not too bad but if you’re getting it around 11am or 12pm it is always thirty or forty minutes late,” he added.
Daniel Smith (20) studies law and is originally from Lissycasey but now lives in Ennis. “The only real complaint I have with the public transport is how inconsistent and unreliable it is, plenty of times the bus can be very late or even not show up at all. It’s something you need to factor in when planning,” he said.
“Due to buses not being on time or not arriving it can lead to you being late to lectures or missing them entirely so it can definitely have an effect on your academics”, the Lissycasey man continues. On one occasion he was due to take part in a mock trial that carried significant weight for his grade. The bus Daniel needed was over an hour late which as a result caused him to arrive just in time for trial, causing considerable stress.
This sentiment is shared by Jack who says he finds it hard to study after the journey each day which can sometimes take as long as two hours going and return due to traffic and lack of student parking in UL. “Having accommodation would be easier. It’s hard to find the energy to study when you’ve been driving all day. There’s days where I’m in there from 9-6 so it’s harder, there’s no library at home”. Cian also says he finds the commuting effects his study as it can be difficult to put the required time and energy into his intensive course, especially with the large number of lab reports he has to complete.
