Two separate investigations have been launched, by the gardaí and Bus Éireann, into a fire on a school bus in Co Meath yesterday.
The bus, which had just been serviced, was taking 32 children to Athboy Community School when it caught fire on the Athboy Delvin road yesterday morning .
It is understood the female driver pulled the bus over and evacuated all of the children after she had smelled smoke. The students were safely led off the bus and the fire brigade and Bus Éireann were alerted.
A spokesman for the company said by the time the emergency services arrived the bus was fully ablaze. He added that none of the children were injured or suffered shock in the incident and they were brought to school a short time later by a replacement bus.
It emerged yesterday afternoon that the bus involved in the incident had been serviced within the past two days.
Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said he understood that checks were carried out on the bus in the 48 hours before the incident. The Minister said he wanted to know how the fire had broken out on the bus such a short time after it had been checked, and he said he would order a systems review of the safety criteria involved. "It is not good enough that we are having an ongoing series of these types of issues," Mr Cullen said.
In a statement released yesterday, principal of Athboy Community School Anthony Leavy said management was thankful that all pupils and the driver were safe.
He added that the students involved were being monitored by the school's pastoral care team.
Following the incident, Minister Noel Dempsey, who is a TD in Meath, called for a full audit to be carried out of all school buses in the county and expressed his relief that no one had been injured in the incident.
Fine Gael road safety spokesman and Meath East TD Shane McEntee yesterday called for an independent audit of Bus Éireann's vehicle testing system. He stated this audit must also consider whether the age of Bus Éireann school buses was a factor in recent accidents, given that the average Bus Éireann school bus was 16 years old, three times older than the average Dublin Bus vehicle.
It is the second fire on board a bus in Co Meath in less than 12 months. There was a fire on a bus at Cushenstown in Co Meath on June 20th last year, before it was due to start a school run to bring students attending five second-level schools in Drogheda.
No students were on board at the time and no one was injured in the incident.
The first anniversary of the Kentstown school bus tragedy will take place next Tuesday. Charges are due to be brought against Bus Éireann in relation to the crash in which five schoolgirls were killed on May 23rd last year.
The company is already facing a summons alleging that the bus involved in the Kentstown crash was a danger to the public because of a defect that could have been discovered, if proper checks had been carried out before the accident.