The bus involved in yesterday's crash in Co Offaly that left one schoolboy dead and 34 people injured was not licensed by the Department of Transport it emerged today.
Speaking in the Dáil this evening the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, said while the bus operator has been licensed by the department with a road passenger transport operator's licence since 2003, there was only one bus registered on the licence and it was a different vehicle to the one involved in the crash.
"The vehicle involved in the accident is registered for road tax purposes in the name of the transport manager of the operation but has not applied to my Department to have it registered on his operator license," Mr Cullen admitted during parliamentary questions tonight.
"It is a requirement of my Department that before a vehicle can be registered on the licence as an authorised vehicle, my Department would require the sight of a current public service vehicle (PSV) certificate or roadworthiness certificate," he said.
The Minister added that it was a matter to be followed up by the Gardaí during the course of their investigation.
That investigation opened this morning, with Gardaí trying to establish what caused the bus to overturn on a straight stretch of bog road between Clara and Rahan
The crash happened just before 8.30am on its way from Clara to Killina Presentation Secondary School, near Rahan and no other vehicle was involved.
There were over 30 students on the bus, which was hired privately by their parents to take them to school.
Thirty-three children and the bus driver were taken to hospitals in Tullamore and Mullingar.
Five students and the driver were detained overnight in Tullamore. Two students were recovering from surgery for glass lacerations while the other patients were being kept under observation.