Services in urgent need of review

Quite plainly, a 40-year-old school transport system, which could possibly force as many as 6,000 children to have to change schools, is in serious need of a review.

Ironically, their plight arises from a very sensible move to make school buses safer after the horrific accident which claimed the lives of five school girls near Navan, Co Meath, last May.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin recently announced a 25 million investment by the Government which will ensure that by the end of next year all children travelling on school buses will be belted into their own seats. This means that the previous system whereby three pupils shared two seats, the “three-for-two” seating arrangement, will be eliminated for second-level students from the next term.