Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Yesterday, another incident took place involving a school bus, bringing the total number of such incidents to about six in the past year. Thankfully, nobody was injured in yesterday's accident. The previous accident was also a fire in which, luckily, nobody was injured. This must be taken in hand and if money must be invested, so be it. Anybody regularly driving around this country will have noticed that one can turn the corner of a quiet road and see the same school bus with the same registration number in the same place for the past 30 years. Some of these would not be useful as hen houses yet are being used to transport children to schools. I would like a full statement from the Minister for Education and Science, or whoever is the responsible Minister, outlining the condition of these buses, how often they are checked, how many have seat belts, the normal capacity and the qualification of the drivers. These issues have come to the fore in recent times and the least we can do for the parents, pupils and school authorities is to reassure ourselves about these buses. They cannot be passing the type of NCT tests we require for ordinary road users. This responsibility must fall on us as legislators and public representatives.

I recently noted that the Minister for Defence made a proposal to the Government, which was accepted, to increase the pensions of survivors of the 1916 Rising and nobody would have a problem with that but would welcome it. To reiterate a point I made here some months ago, with the increased interest around the 90th anniversary of the Rising, many people are trying to do research into that area. Most of the information is available from the Bureau of Military History, which is unable to deal with the demand. I have spoken to the staff there. There are fewer than 20 chairs and there is a two month wait to get a space for a number of hours in a day. The staff is superb and enthusiastic about the work and has had assurances from everybody right up to the Taoiseach. It would be useful for the Minister for Defence to come here and tell us the plans he has to give public access to the records available in the Bureau of Military History, including statements taken in the 1940s and 1950s from survivors of those times, which give vital information on local and national history. It is the least he could do and would be more useful and helpful than some of the commemorative events.