The Government will not decide on changes to the State's school bus service until three investigations into Monday's tragic crash in Co Meath, which killed five schoolgirls, are concluded. Mark Hennessy, Tim O'Brien and Carl O'Brien report.
The accident dominated yesterday's meeting of the Cabinet, which heard briefings from the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, and the Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea.
The five girls died when a Bus Éireann school bus crashed about two miles from Navan, in Co Meath, as it brought more than 50 students home at around 4.15pm on Monday.
The tragedy led Ministers to postpone a decision on the Critical Infrastructure Bill, which aims to create a fast-track system inside An Bord Pleanála for vital infrastructural projects. It had been expected to receive Cabinet clearance.
As the three investigations into the crash got under way yesterday, Bus Éireann appointed former Assistant Garda Commissioner Jim McHugh to chair its inquiry while the gardaí were seeking to interview the drivers of the three cars involved. Gardaí have already begun interviews with children who were on the bus.
An examination of the state of the tarmac at the scene of the crash, which was resurfaced shortly before the accident, is expected to form a part of the investigation.
Witnesses and schoolchildren yesterday said the bus appeared to skid on the wet road for several metres. Bernie O'Byrne, whose 13-year-old son Ruairí was on the bus, said: "The bend has only been newly done. There was no grip on the road at all. I go that way a lot, it had been lashing rain."
Some reports suggest the bus turned over and spun 180 degrees while on its side before colliding with an oncoming vehicle and coming to rest.
During an emergency Dáil debate, the Minister of State for Education, Síle de Valera, who has responsibility for school bus services, defended the safety record of the bus fleet.
More than 138,000 children are carried to school every day by the fleet, which travels 40 million miles annually. "It is a massive transport operation," she said.
She has been working in recent months on a plan to fit school buses with warning lights to reduce the number of children who get involved in accidents as they get on or off buses.
The Department of Education has been in talks with the Department of Transport to stop the use of overcrowded buses and the so-called "two seats for three pupils" policy.
Just 14 per cent of pupils are taken to school in this way, a department spokesman said, adding that it hoped this number could be cut entirely within three years.
There are no plans to make the wearing of seat-belts compulsory.
Health and Safety Authority investigators who arrived on the scene on Monday night continued examining the scene and vehicles yesterday. The road is to remain closed until further notice.
Announcing its independent board of inquiry, Bus Éireann said members would have a 10-week period from its initial meeting in which to report. Any such report, however, is unlikely to be made public until after the Garda inquiry, because of the possibility of a file being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Eight passengers remained in hospital yesterday.
Meanwhile, arrangements were announced yesterday for the funerals of the five schoolgirls. All will take place locally in Co Meath over the next three days.
President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern as well as British prime minister Tony Blair and Northern Secretary Peter Hain were among those who sent condolences to the bereaved.