New regulations to ensure that older school buses are subject to more stringent safety checks and more frequent testing, are among the recommendations of a major report on commercial vehicle testing.
Commissioned from PricewaterhouseCoopers in the wake of separate bus crashes in which six children lost their lives in Co Meath and Co Offaly, the report was this week said to be "on the desk" of the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.
PricewaterhouseCoopers was asked to investigate testing arrangements following reports in The Irish Times which revealed that commercial vehicles which had successfully passed tests in the Republic, were frequently found to be in breach of similar safety regulations in Britain.
The report was completed earlier this year and submitted to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) which added its own recommendations before forwarding it to Mr Dempsey.
A number of meetings have since been held between Department officials and the RSA but a spokeswoman said no comment would be made on final recommendations pending their consideration by Mr Dempsey.
However, the report is understood to reflect growing concern that many school vehicles are among the oldest commercial vehicles still in everyday use, many of which would be refused permission to carry goods under typical hauliers' contracts.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is also concerned that a common standard be applied across all test centres and that this standard be closely and easily monitored by one authority, most likely the RSA, with the aid of the Garda. Among the tolls which could give rise to this are hand-held scanners which could read a vehicle's history from either its number plate or its tachograph.
The RSA, in conjunction with gardaí, and customs and excise officers, currently carries out random roadside inspections. However, there is evidence that the regulations do not meet with universal compliance.
A spokesman for the haulage industry said licensed hauliers were operating in a very regulated market and complied with regulations at some cost to themselves.
In contrast, the spokesman said the State itself did not set such stringent rules for the transportation of children. "Why is it that you have to have compliance for a whole range of issues for frozen food, but children's transport is much less policed?" he asked.
