The report is to be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and will highlight "incorrect practices" by the council in relation to roadworks being carried out where the accident occurred.

Although the report, conducted by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), will not make specific recommendations on prosecutions, a reliable source told the Sunday Tribune that the "weight of the report will lead to inescapable conclusions of incorrect practices in relation to both Meath County Council and Bus Eireann."

It has already been reported that, following an earlier garda investigation, the DPP is to prosecute Bus Eireann over the crash, which claimed the lives of five teenagers last May.

This latest report also focuses attention on the role of Meath County Council, in relation to the lack of an appropriately-conducted safety plan for the roadworks site on the Kentstown road and the failure to have in place a person in charge of safety at the site.

Local authorities have a statutory obligation to ensure that all roadworks include a safety plan on how they are operated and interact with traffic.

There has been considerable focus on the effect of the road surface at the time of the accident. The surface was covered with dense bitumen macadam (DBM), a coarse surface laid before a final layer can be placed on a road. But the DBM surface is not given major significance in the HSA report.

However, the non-deployment of the anti-lock braking system (ABS) on the Bus Eireann bus, already raised in the earlier garda report, is highlighted by the HSA as one of the main factors which prevented the bus being under the control of the driver, who is absolved from any blame.

The HSA has also launched an investigation into the death of Mayo woman, Aisling Gallagher, who was killed in a car accident at Murrevanagh, Co Mayo, in December 2004.

Her father Thomas, a construction expert, questioned the speed limit of 100kph which applied on the road.

Where DBM has been laid, the speed limit is generally 48kph. The speed limit on the Kentstown road was 80kph.