Clare County Council's winter gritting programme allows for roughly one fifth of the county's roads to be salted, when cold weather develops.
This includes hundreds of kilometres of national, regional, and busy routes that carry the vast majority of traffic, or roads that facilitate longer journeys.
But because some schools are located on smaller rural routes, the roads surrounding them aren't gritted.
This has led to calls by local representatives for the winter gritting programme to be extended, amdist fears of the danger posed to children or padestrians.
Sixmilebridge Independent Councillor Pj Ryan accepts that not every roads in the county can treated but in the absense of this, he'd like to see salt bunkers installed at schools.
Clare County Council says it doesn't have the resources to ensure that roads around every school are gritted, with the cost of extending its programme estimated at an additional 100 thousand euro.
Senior Engineer Tom Tiernan hasn't ruled out the provision of bunkers on the grounds of individual schools but he says that comes with additional difficulties.
