Plea over vetting of children’s workers

REVELATIONS that a sex offender was employed as a bus driver for special needs pupils have prompted calls for the Government to introduce mandatory garda background checks on everyone working with children.

Bus Éireann yesterday terminated the contract with the company which employed convicted sex offender Michael O’Brien.

O’Brien, 43, served a two-year sentence after he was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting a teenage girl two years previously. He originally faced nine charges but seven were withdrawn and he was cleared on one.