Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

This week and next week, the school bus fleet will be taken off the roads until next September. It is not long since the Members of this House, the media, parents, school boards of management and so on mourned the tragic loss of the children in Meath. Last week a school bus went on fire but luckily there were no children on board and a child remains in a critical condition after falling through the back window of a school bus yesterday.

What will it take for the Minister who has responsibility for the school bus fleet to accept responsibility and either take some of those buses off the road completely and replace them, or at least bring them to a state of roadworthiness? As Senators Kitt and O'Toole have mentioned, this is particularly important when we see the return of funds to the central Exchequer and when the Minister stated clearly after the Meath tragedy that it would take considerable funding, which was not currently available to the Department. The Leader should ask the Minister to ensure adequate tests for roadworthiness are carried out and, where necessary, that ramshackle buses are taken off the road and replaced so children can travel in safety and parents are not unduly concerned about their safe return home.

On the return of funding, Senator Feeney mentioned the Irish language. It is unacceptable that so much funding will be spent on translating, out of necessity, documents which will become useless, particularly documents of a technical nature. This funding could be used very well in other areas to promote the Irish language, such as in the provision of textbooks in Irish to children in Gaeltacht areas. This is not being done. We must get our priorities right and I ask the Leader to ensure this happens.