The ABS system was not working in eight out of 18 vehicles tested by Bus Éireann four days after a crash in which five Meath schoolgirls were killed, a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today.

One of the companies on trial for breaches of the Health and Safety Act arising from the investigation into a fatal bus crash causing the death of five Meath schoolgirls in 2005 has pleaded guilty to a new charge.

The driver of the bus which crashed three years ago, which caused the deaths of five Meath schoolgirls, has revealed he had never been told the vehicle was supposed to have an anti-lock braking system (ABS).

The jury in a trial arising from an investigation into a school bus crash in which five schoolgirls were killed has been told that a company knew the vehicle's ABS system was defective but failed to repair it.

The jury at the trial of the Navan bus crash which claimed the lives of five young schoolgirls has been released until tomorrow morning so Judge Thomas Teehan can hear legal arguments.