Six secondary school students and their bus driver were recovering in hospital today following an accident in Co Mayo.
More than 40 of their school friends and four teachers from Crescent College Comprehensive School, in Limerick City, were also taken to Castlebar General Hospital after the vehicle slid off a road outside Westport.
It is reported that two sons of the Fine Gael leader Mr Michael Noonan, one a 16-year-old student and the other a 27-year-old teacher, were among those later discharged from hospital.
The group were returning from an adventure centre on Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland, when the accident happened at 10.30am yesterday morning.
Their bus pulled to the side of the road to allow a wide vehicle to pass but slid around six feet down an embankment into a field, a police spokesman said.
The injured are understood to have suffered back and spinal injuries. PA