All school children travelling on buses run by Bus Éireann now have their own individual seat and seatbelt.
The Government says it has met the target it set for the end of last year for all 3,000 buses in the school transport system to be fitted with seatbelts.
The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Seán Haughey, said he was pleased the targets had been met.
But he said one worrying new development was vandalism by some teenagers of seatbelts.
Mr Haughey said there had been incidents in Cork, Galway, Laois and Offaly.
He added that CCTV cameras have been put in place in some instances and the children involved had been asked to pay for the damage they caused.
Bus Éireann is currently evaluating four new types of school bus with special safety features to determine which is the most suitable for Irish conditions.
At the moment, 20 of these new buses are in service around the country, with a further 30 to go into service over the coming months.
