David Norris (Independent)

I hope so, although I am not fully convinced, because the Minister of State has said that the fitting of safety belts will be mandatory for new buses entering the service from 20 October 2007. That is great, but it is 18 months away. That will make it about seven years since I first raised the issue. The Minister of State went on to say that the only exceptions are the buses used on single stop urban services. The EU directives do not require the retro-fitting of seat belts. I understand there is a limited programme of retro-fitting, which is not complete. The Minister of State may correct me if I am wrong but I understand there is no commitment to fully retro-fit every single school bus in the country, that there will be a phase-in, phase-out situation, so to speak. That is not acceptable. All the buses should be retro-fitted. The Minister of State said that in recent years, a significant number of larger buses entering into the service of this country have been fitted with safety belts. They should all be fitted.