The school bus fleet is a "ramshackle service", and the quality of the vehicles must be reassessed immediately, according to the Fine Gael public enterprise spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins.
Bus Eireann has defended the quality of the fleet and described the Mayo TD's call as an "old chestnut". A review of safety on school buses commissioned by the Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, is continuing and is to be published before the Dail resumes.
Mr Higgins made his call following examination of the maintenance records of two school buses in Mayo. The vehicles, which he chose at random, have recorded 23 and 22 breakdowns respectively since 1998. The information was recently supplied by the Minister for Education, Dr Woods.
The vehicles serve two post-primary schools in Claremorris, Co Mayo. Faults included brake problems, flat batteries, overheating, electrical and fuel problems, broken exhausts and jammed doors.
Dr Woods confirmed that vehicle registration number 81 D 1577 had a total of 23 faults, including 11 on the roadside, between January 14th, 1998, and December 6th, 2000.
Another bus with vehicle registration number 81 D 3877 had 23 faults, including 13 on the side of the road, between September 1st, 1998, and June 13th, 2000. In a letter to Mr Higgins, the Minister said both vehicles were included in a "programmed schedule of preventive maintenance procedures" designed to keep these occurrences to a minimum.
"The narrow country roads and potholed terrain over which school buses typically travel subject the coaches to considerable structural stress, which is a contributory factor in their failure rate," said Dr Woods.
Responding, Mr Higgins said the situation was "an absolute disgrace". . Last January he had raised the issue of school bus safety and reliability, after an accident near Milltown, Co Galway, where three children were injured when they fell through the rear window of the bus.
"At the time, Bus Eireann became very defensive and asserted aggressively that they could stand over the quality and safety of school buses," Mr Higgins said. "The appalling performances of the two buses I have randomly chosen speak for themselves. It confirms conclusively that many of the existing school buses should be consigned to the scrap heap.
"Many of them are rejects from the Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus fleets," he added. "A substantial number are second-hand imports from Singapore, and 578 of them are over 16 years old."
Mr Higgins said Dr Woods and the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, both "stand indicted" for not making available the necessary finance for a safe and reliable school transport system for the nation's children.
Mr Cyril McIntyre, spokesman for Bus Eireann, said the fact that maintenance records were in place for both vehicles showed the system worked. He said every vehicle the company ran on the road carried a roadworthiness certificate, and there was a regular maintenance examination of the whole fleet.
"If a driver reports faults, they are dealt with. There is no question of us operating unsafe vehicles," he said.
Mr McIntyre also defended the age of the fleet. "We have a constant programme of upgrading the school transport fleet, and it is perfectly normal to transfer buses from a high mileage service on to one that has relatively low mileage when it reaches a certain age," he said.
"Jim Higgins keeps equating age with safety, but a 30-year-old vehicle is perfectly safe if it is maintained properly."
Following last January's accident in Galway, a review of school bus safety was commissioned by Mr O'Dea, with a three-month deadline, that is, completion by the end of April. The study involving Mr O'Dea's Department, Bus Eireann and the Department of the Environment and Local Government hasn't been published, but a spokesman for the Department of Education told The Irish Times it hoped to complete it in time for the Dail's return this autumn.
