Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I assure the Deputy that there is a sense of urgency which does not relate simply to the very sad deaths of five students in Meath. The circumstances of the crash were very difficult for everybody, but the general safety of buses is and must be the subject of ongoing review in the Department. Deputy O'Sullivan admits rightly that three for two seating arrangements have been considered in the Department for some time, which is why we are able to say they will be completely abolished within two to three years. The Deputy can rest assured that if we can, we will do it sooner than that.

In terms of the retrofitting of seat belts, as I explained in the debate a couple of weeks ago in this House, I was informed by the experts that retrofitting must be done in a specialised way so as to ensure that any adaptation would be completely safe. I will meet again with the experts who will provide further information to me and the Department. I have been told there may be some buses already in the fleet that can be retrofitted with seat belts. The matter is a not simple one as we are talking about a number of different types of seat belts. It will be for the experts to advise us on the type of seat belts that would be most applicable in terms of safety on these buses.

We have been looking at different types of buses on an ongoing basis. We have looked at three different types of new buses, a Turkish made bus, a bus made in Donegal and a bus made in Britain. All these new buses are fitted with seat belts. I emphasise that it is not a question of equating old buses with a lack of safety. There are strict road worthiness criteria for all school buses. Replacement and additional buses are to be equipped with seat belts. I made a statement to that effect on 25 May and the Taoiseach reiterated this statement on 27 May in an RTE television debate.

We will be phasing in seat belts for the entire transport fleet, but as I stated, there are logistical problems in trying to acquire right-hand buses. We are doing our utmost to ensure that will happen but it will take time. That is the overall position.

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