Minister to highlight bus seatbelt vandalism

Junior Education Minister Sean Haughey will highlight today the vandalism by pupils of bus seatbelts as the new school year draws closer.

Mr Haughey will visit the Bus Eireann School Transport Safety Roadshow at the Virginia Agricultural Show in Co Cavan.

He will discuss the unruly behaviour of children, as well as the large numbers of pupils refusing to wear seatbelts.

He is expected to also outline plans for an advertising campaign aimed at post primary children travelling on the School Transport Scheme.

The Government last August launched a major campaign to raise awareness among parents and children that it was the law to wear seatbelts on buses.

The fitting of seatbelts on all school buses was just one of a number of measures announced by the Education Department in the summer of 2005.

The move came after five teenage girls were killed when the school bus they were travelling on crashed in Co Meath in May, 2005.