‘Same safety standards should apply to private school buses as to State-run buses’

PRIVATE schoolbus operators should be compelled to meet the same safety standards as those that apply to operators within the State system, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

In the Dáil, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said there were two regimes for transporting children to school: one operated by the Department of Education, which seeks to apply the highest standards in terms of numbers and the wearing of seatbelts and another by private contractors not forced to meet such standards.

Mr Kenny suggested a review of schemes run by private operators.