Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

No, I am not. We are not here to be argumentative on the issue. I am saying what the law is. There is EU law governing this and I am subject to it just as the Deputy is. I am giving her the sequence. As it stands, the school bus system is operated and contracted through the Department of Education and Science, and Bus Éireann and the subcontracted private bus operators are being obliged by the Department to have every bus in the fleet fitted with safety belts. That is well under way and it answers another question the Deputy raised, namely, why we are all waiting around and doing nothing because we have not seen the reports. We are not. We have speeded up the process. The Department officials have engaged with Europe and various countries on a range of issues, and have not been waiting for any report.

The other issues in the report are a matter for the courts. I will not speculate on them, nor would the Deputy expect me to do so. With regard to any bus outside the school system, Deputy Olivia Mitchell asked why I cannot, overnight, say that every bus must be retrofitted with safety belts. The point is that some of those buses may, some of the time, be used to carry schoolchildren. All buses, no matter who contracts them, should have safety belts for the transport of young children, whether involved in clubs or schools, and I want to move in that direction.

In reality, we will probably have to look at the entire fleet of buses if they want to be involved in the myriad opportunities in which CIE is involved. To do that, I must notify the European Commission of such a move and the Commission must notify all member states. They then have three months to consider whether to agree to it. As I said yesterday, there are issues of free movement of goods and trade within the European Union and one cannot set a standard or make an imposition in one country which can affect the movement of people from another country to do business with a standard not being an EU-wide standard. Is that understandable to the Deputy?

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